Among the films in the first half of the year, "A Quiet Place 2" was a very eye-catching one. As the sequel to "A Quiet Place", the dark horse at the North American box office in 2018, the entire lineup of writers and directors has returned. The intention is not obvious. The original production aims to replicate the previous box office success. Now it seems that the task has been successfully completed, becoming the first North American film to exceed 100 million at the box office this year. Because this is a sequel film, if we want to talk about 2, we must mention 1. Interestingly, parallel editing is one of the main techniques of the director of this film, so we might as well talk about this film in a parallel juxtaposition. . At the same time, compared with the popularity it received in the United States, this film, like its predecessor, has been a bit cold in the Chinese market, which makes it more worthy of discussion.
Genre films with horror and thriller labels are generally concept-first, and if you have a good idea, you will succeed more than half of the time. It is said that the two screenwriters of this film came up with the main setting in college, which is different from Most horror films devote their attention to visual elements in favor of auditory elements. A group of monsters that rely on hearing to attack, a space where no sound can be made, seems to have a dramatic tension naturally. The final script was jointly completed by John Krasinski, the director and one of the leading actors. The emotional bond and entanglement between family members in the film should be his contribution. So the fear of monsters and the love of family have formed the two cornerstones of the film. The main story line of the most relatively low-cost and small-scale horror film is enough to support the overall situation. The best part of the director is that he does not spread too much, and speaks steadfastly and consciously. A simple story, 1 is especially obvious, the vision is always limited to the physical space and mental space of the small family of four, and the monsters only appear at one end and one end, like the sword of Damocles hanging over their heads, keeping everyone from beginning to end. It was shrouded in the shadow of the crisis, but it was not abused. On the other hand, the ambition of 2 was bigger, and it went out of the small home and embarked on the road movie mode of survival in the end of the world, but the completion was not ideal. Fortunately, at the end, I returned to the growth of the children within the family, returned to the main line, and recovered some points.
1's script is more solid, elegant, with wonderful details and perfect rhythm. It starts with one death and ends with another death, from cruel to tragic, and the biggest crisis (monster) causes a clever ambush between the two deaths. There are three small crisis events that are not directly related to monsters, iron nails stuck in the soles of feet, premature fetuses, and barns where grains are stored, but these three small crisis events do not deviate from the main line, they are all monsters. The secondary crisis caused by the main crisis, the sense of despair created by these small events deepens step by step, always one crisis is resolved and another crisis comes again, the audience does not dare to breathe, and their emotions are overwhelmed to the extreme, until the end of the film. It is completely released when killing, and the pleasure is self-evident. Especially the scene where the nails pierced the feet and the premature birth of the fetus happened on the heroine almost at the same time. Emily Browning, who played the heroine, contributed to the actress-level performance. The heart-piercing pain and almost overflowed the screen. And it is accurate, you can clearly distinguish which is the foot pain and which is the labor pain. If you think about it a little bit, the women who endure great pain so deliberately in the film seem to have some symbolic meaning. The heroine is the mother in the film, and in the context of the end of the world, she undoubtedly represents the mother of the entire human race. On the one hand, it has to bear the invisible pressure from the external world, and on the other hand, it must nurture human beings in extreme pain. Then the male protagonist is naturally the father of mankind, and in the end, he sacrificed himself in exchange for the continuity of the entire race. This ending was actually foreshadowed in the previous dialogue between the male and female protagonists. When the female protagonist poured out her thoughts and self-blame to the male protagonist, she asked: If we cannot protect our children, what kind of parents are we? (Who are we? If we can't protect them), the male protagonist did not speak, but his eyes were firm. He would never let the tragedy of the child dying in front of his eyes happen again, even at the cost of his life.
In contrast, 2 does not have such a great script and rhythm. At the beginning, a monster was shot in the head, and the monster's sense of power immediately became less powerful. With this level of combat value, what is there to be afraid of? what about? After all the fear and tension felt far-fetched. 2 To some extent, I was also taking the blame for 1. I obviously didn’t think much about it when I was shooting 1. I didn’t expect it to become a hit. Maybe I didn’t plan to be afraid of the sequel. The two of them immediately started killing, and the hidden text was to kill the other two monsters, so what should I do when it comes to 2, it seems a bit unreasonable to be afraid of monsters. The screenwriter used two methods, one is to develop a "prequel", and shoot a scene before the story of 1, which is the scene of the "Day One (first day)" monster crisis. The other method is to set the same as in 1. There are some small crises that have nothing to do with monsters, the animal trap at the beginning, the oxygen cylinder in the middle and the malicious refugees behind, the effect should be said to be unsatisfactory, the "prequel" can be said to be reasonable and quite satisfactory, originally a quiet town The slaughterhouse that turned into a monster in one day, whether it is the storyline or the special effects spectacle, there is nothing wrong with it, no surprises, what should happen happens. In the second half, after a parallel montage identical to 1 appeared, the rhythm became much better. Several small crisis events broke out one by one, and the tension increased until the final climax came to an abrupt end, which saved the narrative rhythm and did not roll over. This is also the reason why 2 has no word of mouth car accident. The script of 2 put forward the moral collapse of the people who survived the crisis of extinction and some attempts to establish a small utopian society, but the depth and length of the description are far from enough, and it can only be reduced to a faint background board. The director is very self-aware and pulls back the main line of storytelling at the climax - family, in 1, the previous generation protects the next generation, in 2, the next generation saves the previous generation, the new and the old are completed alternately, and the roles of the two children have realized the characters. growing up. When fighting monsters, there was no surprise that the noise of hearing aids was a weapon in 1, but the screenwriters still came up with a bridge to use the radio to transmit sound waves, which is also considered careful. And the director's technique is still as neat as in 1, like the hearing aids, nails and barn in 1 have repeated close-ups, and the tape recorder, oxygen cylinder and revolver in 2 also gave enough shots, and the attentive audience will have a knowing smile. ,"I knew it……".
1 Another great thing is that there are few characters, but each character presents a complete arc of characters. Even the youngest son who was killed at the beginning of the episode also drew a rocket on the ground before he died. He naively told his sister that the rocket could bring the whole family with him. The plot of flying away, in just a few tens of seconds, gave the audience at least an impression of this cute little boy, and then such an innocent little life was fleeting, which was embarrassing. The death of the youngest son not only sets a tense and sad tone at the beginning of the film, but also drives the plot and the hearts of the characters. The whole family undoubtedly wants another child to fill the vacancy of the youngest son, but the inner wounds cannot be healed. , the mother looked sad at the child's clothes, the son asked the father, do you blame the sister? The father replied that it wasn't anyone's fault, but he didn't answer why he didn't let his sister into his studio and didn't take her out to hunt. The daughter made an unintentional loss because of her love for her younger brother. Not only did she blame herself, but she also felt that her father had a grudge against her. In fact, she was the most innocent one. The scene where she cut the wire of the toy in front of her brother's grave was almost disappointing. tears. At the same time, she is the most like her father, brave, persistent, and can sacrifice herself for others, so the male protagonist played by Murphy in 2 said, I really don't look like your father, you look like you. Many people say that Murphy, who has great acting skills, has too little presence in 2. In fact, I don't blame him. It's because of the script. The character of 2 actually put a smoke bomb on purpose. Murphy is a pseudo-male protagonist. , the first half of the heroine's words after encountering Murphy meant that he should fill his father's position. Although Murphy was a little cowardly, he still reluctantly obeyed, and would only find her daughter at the request of the heroine. But in the second half, especially the climax at the end, a reversal came. It was not Murphy who took over the father's position, but his pair of children. The daughter took the father's gun, the son took the mother's gun, and at the same time used the father The sound waves of the manufactured hearing aids killed the monsters, the peak conflict of the plot and the highlight moments of the characters were frozen at the same time, and Murphy put it aside. It is also interesting to think about the situation outside the play here. The director is the father in 1 (there is also a role in the flashback of the prequel of 2), he also participated in the writing of the script, and she is also the husband of the heroine in real life. Child, so he may be implying that no one can take my place.
Finally, let me say that "A Quiet Place" 1 and 2 were both very popular in the North American market, but the box office was cold in China, and the word of mouth was average. The reason is that the protagonist of the film is a typical middle-class family in the United States. Families and people have a strong sense of substitution. Although the emotional core is also the phrase "we are faimily (we are tired of logging)", it is indeed the universal value of people. At the beginning of 2, the scene of my son playing baseball and the whole family going to refuel in the countryside is simply outrageous. People don’t want money to go to the supermarket to buy things. They don’t dare to shoot like this in commercials. Of course not, we are a working-class family who take 996 as a blessing, and have to run to and from work. Watching the people in the play lead a fairy-like life, it is right for a monster to make trouble. Even if there are monsters infested and the world is in chaos, the protagonist's family just moved from the upper floor of the detached garden villa to the basement. The adults grill fish and the children play games. There is no water or electricity, and they still live quite leisurely. If there is such a monster here, it is definitely not the case. The population density of the residential area is so high that it is hard to imagine the scene where everyone is crowded in a small underground floor. The casualties of trampling on each other must be far greater than the lethality of the monsters; The emotional gap between children is also a common occurrence that has long been accustomed to. You urge marriage, I gnaw on the old, complain to each other, each gets his own way, and it is disgusting to insist on the so-called reconciliation, so in the case of no empathy and substitution, everyone can only go Looking for a logical loophole in the story, but the logic of horror films is a sieve. If you really want to be realistic, you will be exhausted, so you turn to the special effects and wonders in the film, and this film emphasizes the low level of atmosphere creation. The cost of a B-level film does not have any great big scenes. After several disappointments, naturally I will not buy it or buy a ticket.
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