‘A Peace Playground: Past One’ franchise avoids prequel pitfalls: NPR

First, let’s put the essentials Hollywood relies heavily on prequels, sequels and reboots Say it right here, and get it out of the way. This is completely and emphatically true.

And, but. Sometimes and subsequently – possibly more often than a film critic, but under no circumstances in sufficient quantity to invalidate such a comment – ​​an act of intellectual convenience if in reality his life is a shallow Instead of justifying something else as a money cow. Michael Sarnoski’s A Peace Playground: Past Oneprequel to the original a peace playground And its sequel, Admirably makes his personal case for bringing us back to the franchise’s bright doomsday state. A lot of the gratitude for this must immediately be aimed at its celebrity, a particularly magnetic Lupita Nyong’o.

The actual film’s concept allowed its director, co-writer, and celebrity John Krasinski to play games with the pitch (and lack thereof) generation of watchable forebears. Foreigner And jurassic landscape: In a post-apocalyptic world, an invasion of murderous extraterrestrial beings with ultrasonic hearing gives the human hordes an almost entirely peaceful life, or the chance to be eaten. past oneAs its name suggests, it feels like it’s back to square one again, as the creatures disrupt the traditional way of going about the day in untouched York City.

For poet Samira (Nyongo), the conventional view of the day is given to her as a cancer patient, and she is deeply dissatisfied. However the supernatural beings later became unwell, and unexpectedly a debilitating disorder was not her foremost fear. As Sam explores the ruined city, he must deal not only with supernatural creatures, but also a particularly nervous tagalong named Eric (Joseph Quinn). Unlike her, Eric is reckoning with his mortality on his first day as a young adult. He’s not handling it well any more.

So often in Hollywood movies where the stakes are extremely high, the script calls for a long-lost loved one to take on the emotional burden. An endangered, dead, or murdered child/spouse/father or mother/puppy always has time to build for the best, if a descriptive tool based on numbers is created. Real a peace playground There is no one else; It begins with the hasty and gruesome death of the youngest child of the Abbott population at the hands of a sort of murderous supernatural creature.

Sarnoski, who in the past directed the entertaining Nicolas Cage film pig (the only place where Cage hunts down the thieves who stole his truffle-hunting boar), plays with such tactics somewhat here, even if Sam’s over-reliance on his beloved dark-and-white cat, Frodo. , which is clearly designed to make animal fans swoon and worry and soften with each terrifying twist and turn.

Although I am making past oneIts protagonist is an ordinary man already grappling with the possibility of his untimely death, posing existential questions and thoughts that often appear in Hollywood would-be blockbusters. Where does the desire to live arise in an environment of terrible disaster, when one is already facing death in some other way? Which emotions are prioritized (and which utility is being prioritized) in a holistic survival approach?

past one The screenplay almost scratches the surface of such questions, though Nyong’o adroitly highlights and underlines them threefold. In a film that demands nuanced discussion, the actress is one of the very few who has what it takes to play such a role and create gravitas in the action – notably, a richly expressionistic face and a deliberate way of speaking. The laced spectacle is co-produced by none other than Michael Bay.

Since their Oscar-winning quality debut 12 years a Slave She has proven to be adept at playing characters who have to work together while falling apart within the outside generation. This is absolutely true of his previous roles in the horror genre: zombie comedies. minute monsterAs a bubbly kindergarten trainer who tries to make her students cool and crazy on a farm trip generation to stop the meat eaters, and is, in fact, We, a dual-dimensional performance that benefits from repeat viewings to fully respect the turmoil, anxiety and rage that goes on beneath Adelaide/Purple. (It’s no longer so far-fetched to believe Twelve years This is a scary thing in his personal perspective, although that’s his personal instructional thesis for anyone else to argue.)

Sam is also unbalanced, nervous, and angry – both at the time of his day and at the area around him. Nyong’o embraces those prickly qualities, however, while also letting the heat in, especially as her bond with Eric grows stronger.

A Bit: Nyong’o elevates the franchise. assume too much dryness about a plot of past one, they generally did not receive modest stock; This undoubtedly used to be true a peace playground, Although having fun in abundance, this next prequel resonates more deeply and thoughtfully than its predecessor – and is far more fitting than any franchise’s third installment.