'A Quiet Place: Day One' movie review- Merely a Serviceable thriller

A still from A Quiet Place

Film: A Quiet Place : Day One
Cast: Lupita Nyong'o, Joseph Quinn, Alex Wolff, Djimon Hounsou, Cain Aiden, Jennifer Woodward, Elijah Ungvary
Director: Michael Sarnoski
Rating: 2.5/5
Runtime: 99 min.

This film, a prequel to the super successful John Krasinski directed franchise ‘A Quiet Place,' hopes to recreate the origin story by depicting the initial alien invasion. It's clear from this attempt that Krasinski is definitely a far superior thriller director. The manner in which he captured destruction and created suspense was so vivid that it became hard to forget. Sarnoski, even though technically proficient, is unable to recreate that kind of potency."Day One" promises a more expansive look at the apocalyptic mayhem but it doesn't deliver it with any depth or consistency. The narrative informs us in the opening moments itself that sound levels in NYC is regularly 90 decibels. But the subsequent sequences fail to capture the contrast of a hustling and bustling city needing to stay quiet all of a sudden.

The people characters though are governed by their behaviors. With more than a million and a half people living on the island of Manhattan, it's hard to understand why Samira (Lupita Nyong'o), a Stage 4 cancer patient, and Eric (Joseph Quinn), come in for special treatment. Both have no survival instincts. Samira goes against the tide of people aiming for the waterways and Eric appears to be following her for no reason at all. Samira is an abrasive anti social person and it becomes difficult to empathise with her situation while Eric comes by his panic attacks by chance. While both Nyong'o and Quinn are rivetting in their emphasis and presence, there's little we learn about their characters all through the film.

The aliens - mostly in the foreground or rampaging away from the camera, still seem gruesome. The city comes in as one of the main character's here. Visuals and soundscapes of the city are life affirming - before the onset of the aliens.

But there's nothing new here. The story isn't as focused on one specific family as the previous ones. There's no backstory as such - just the bombastic arrival of the aliens and the havoc they cause thereafter, in New York City. There's no interesting lore to hold on to either. We don't get to know why the aliens have intruded on Earth and how suddenly everyone recognises ( even the cat) that being silent is the only way to stay hidden from their opaque eyes and acute senses. The monsters are incredibly inconsistent in their reactions to sound. There are times when we see them instantly attacking when the slightest squeak is heard and then there are times when the lead characters go about their business and yet no alien attacks them directly. Even the cat (named Frodo)'s behavior is uncharacteristic for a feline. After the initial meows we don't get a sound out of the Frodo, and furthermore the cat keeps going in and out of the frame and managing to come back to it's owner everytime in spite of the devastation in the city. To top it Samira has a dying wish - to have a pizza, and the narrative makes that aspect it's prized ambition. It's a trivialising construct that weakens the drama considerable.

The sound design has clarity, cinematography is heavily atmospheric and while some CGI is great, some parts aren't. Overall this is just a implausible, though serviceable thriller that plies its tricks with engaging effect.