Less tightly-crafted, still enjoyable

Rating: 7/10 (25 March 2019)

Us is the second film by Jordan Peele, the writer and director of Get Out. While this film is more of a straightforward horror/slasher movie than a 'Social Thriller', it is unmistakably a Peele movie, featuring his signature reincorporations and sardonic wordplay along with the added claustrophobia that comes with the home invasion genre.
While I believe that Get Out is the superior film, there are still many aspects of this film which are an improvement over its predecessor. Firstly, the soundtrack is much more memorable and used to great effect. The blending of humor and horror is also more effective; Get Out alternated the more dramatic and serious scenes with comic relief scenes, but Us manages to have some genuine laugh-out-loud moments in the middle of extremely tense and horrific moments while still maintaining the feeling of constant dread, making for extremely entertaining scenes which are the perfect mixture of horror and comedy.
However, the script and concepts, while genius at times, seem slightly disjointed overall. The logic in Get Out was completely sound, and rewatches would always reveal more hidden details which strengthened it even further. The logic in Us can fall apart if examined too closely, and the numerous ideas struggle to complement each other at times. I feel that Peele had less time to fully think this idea through, perhaps because he felt the need to release a second film as quickly as possible in order to cement his place as a noteworthy up-and-coming director.
Nonetheless, plot holes matter much less than overall themes and symbolism, which Us handles very well. While the social commentary of Get Out was very clear and left little room for debate, Us is more open to speculation and theorising, presenting the audience with a variety of ideas and statements which can be brought together in numerous valid ways.
Even when forgetting the symbolism and commentary, Us still shines as a supremely enjoyable slasher/home invasion movie with striking images and very well crafted sequences of prolonged tension. However, the more squeamish among you may want to give this one a miss.