From the start, we think of Cloverfield. In the end, we always think about Cloverfield. Why, then, not just watch Matt Reeves’ film again? Good question.
Directed and written by Michael Sarnoski (Pig), A Quiet Place: Day One (A quiet corner. Day 1) forgets the rural environment and the Abbotts (whose survival we followed in two films which grossed nearly 640 million), moves to New York (for the umpteenth time on screen, the Big Apple eats up a whole lot) and dates back to the arrival of blind monsters with overdeveloped hearing on the blue planet where they wreak carnage.
” What purpose ? » we asked ourselves in the previous opuses. This third part of the saga imagined by John Krasinski (who wrote and directed the two previous films while also playing in them) does not provide an answer. What were these extraterrestrial creatures doing “on board” the meteorites that fell on Earth? What is their goal, if they have one? What do they do between two killings? Who survives will see. After all, if the machine pays, Day One can be followed by many other days: A Quiet Place went from 89e at 473e day, and A Quiet Place Part II resumed a few hours later, after a flashback to the famous first day — which could/should have served as an example for this feature film.
This time, Samira (Lupita Nyong’o manages to be moving in this role whose destiny is nevertheless written in red ink from the moment she enters the game) is present, who finds herself in the middle of the city, with her cat, at the time of the fateful meteor shower. She meets Eric, a completely lost Englishman (Joseph Quinn, amazing in the role of a character light years away from the metalhead of Stranger Things). Together, where the Abbotts were a family unit in survival mode, they form a pair leading almost the same quest. Almost, because that of a pizza is added here.
In a world where survival depends on silence, Day One is a very noisy film (we’re not surprised to see Michael Bay’s name in the credits). In this terrified city, the inhabitants are exceptionally clear-sighted. It only takes them a few hours to understand that their life depends on their ability not to make or cause a sound. As for Samira and Eric, their wanderings sometimes lead them to dead ends from which they somehow get out, giving the impression that a lot of film has been left on the cutting room floor.
It remains that in this mass of special effects, rather well done, and these few reminders of the first parts of the franchise (among others, the character played by Djimon Hounsou), the interpreters of the protagonists succeed in reproducing the impression of intimacy which was the strength of the first films, which were not without inconsistencies. However, this does not compensate for an unimaginative narrative structure or repetitive production. After all, what can we do with these monsters we know nothing about, other than make them tear humans to pieces? But at least there is the cat…