A Quiet Place: Day One (movie 2024) Save the best for first

I enjoyed the first Quiet Place movie well enough. A lot of people did that and more, and so the movie got a sequel, with part three currently in development. And then now a prequel.
That's how these things work - nothing popular can ever be left as a standalone. Limited originality and all that.

The surprising thing here is how excellent this prequel is. For my money, it is the best of all Quiet Place movies so far.
Yes, the first one will always have that freshness of the idea; the initial POP. But once that's gone, you're stuck following the characters dumb enough to have a baby during a quiet apocalypse. And it's compelling, because that real-life couple of co-writer and director John Krasinski and Emily Blunt are very charismatic.  But also, no. Just no. Sex responsibly, you idiots. The world hardly needs any more people, and certainly not while blind alien predators are hunting everyone to extinction. 
Also, what are the aliens going to do once that happens? Why is that never addressed? I mean, is Earth just a snack stop for them, or are they going to starve to death eventually?
Shouldn't they maybe farm some people for later? And if so, still not okay, the main couple. Don't make more food for the aliens.
Why do people keep having babies during the apocalypse? It was the same thing in The Walking Dead. Does the vainglorious need to procreate override all semblance of logic?

Anyway, no babies in this movie. Just a dying woman determined to get one last slice of pizza in the rapidly collapsing New York City and a man she meets on her way. The two of them end up saving each other in different ways, and it's a really lovely, deeply humane story about sudden friendship and survival in impossible circumstances.

Lupita Nyong'o is excellent as expected, another stellar turn in a genre movie, following her terrific performance in and the best thing about Jordan Peele's Us. The surprise here is Quinn aka Stranger Things' Eddie Munson. Straightlaced and regularly coiffed, he is miles away from his best-known character and heartbreakingly riveting as a regular person caught in the most irregular nightmare.
May this ne the gateway to an excellent career.

Overall, the movie, despite some excellent bombastic scenes, does best (appropriately enough) in its quiet moments. It is a character drama with aliens, not an alien extravaganza with some people in it. Which to me, is a thing of beauty. Recommended!