A Quiet Place: Day One should have just been renamed A Quiet Place: NYC since it wants to be the epic scale version of the Quiet Place Franchise. Yes, it happens on Day One of the invasion (but so too did scenes from Part 2) and we follow a new group of survivors who have to <pause dramatically> Escape from New York (after a random side quest).

Lupita Nyong’o stars alongside Joseph Quinn and Frodo the Cat (the new MVP of cinema). Nyong’o has eyes built for horror (as we saw in Us as well) so she does a very good job carrying a lot of this film on her back. The cat does double duty… and Joseph Quinn I think I was supposed to like but mainly I wanted him to die. Not because he was a villain, but because he was annoying. Which probably wasn’t the intent of the filmmakers.

As a film about these invaders attacking NYC, the city gets central casting as well. Unfortunately, there’s a gap in the scale of the film. It often feels small and isolated, only occasionally opening up to the bigger disaster film it wants to be. Just check the cast list… about ten actors listed in a film set in the biggest city in the country.

The flick often gets sidetracked by side quests. And I get why the side quest exists and why its important to Lupita’s character, but it gets in the way. I kept thinking “yes, I see the Twinkie importance here, but also… killer monsters!”. They could have found better uses of time and geography to reach the requisite runtime.

But at least the final action scene was pretty terrific. Indeed, many of the set pieces were solid with some of the familiar creature attacks we’ve grown used to in this series.

Which reminds me that I absolutely would not mind more stories, locations, and scenarios in future Quiet Place sequels. Absolutely room for more. But they need to do something about the monsters… this is the second sequel where we get new content but the same old critters and that is unsustainable. They need a new bag of tricks or else it’ll get too samey.

I didn’t hate this film but it felt uneven, small, and familiar. It comes in, sadly, on the low end of this franchise so far. Which still makes it a good film though… but this might be the last time they can fuss around with the same formula. Though they should retain Frodo the Cat… absolute legend, that cat.

Score: 84