28 Weeks Later

Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Cast: Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner

Reviewer: Bob the Goldfish

If you’ve seen 28 Days Later then the sequel can be summed up as better than the second half of the first film, but not as good as the first half.

Set twenty-eight weeks after the outbreak of the Rage virus, the film begins with London slowly being cleaned up and re-populated under the guidance of the American army. Having survived the initial outbreak and the apparent death of his wife, Dom (Robert Carlyle) is reunited with his two slightly irritating kids (the both fantastically named Imogen Poots and Mackintosh Muggleton). Needless to say, it’s not long until the virus resurfaces, people die and the army totally fails to do anything useful. Yes, that’s right, folks, the same overall message from the first film returns: when the shit hits the fan, don’t trust the military. What follows involves lots of gore, screaming and general chaos.

Danny Boyle is a top-class director. He has a very distinctive eye for visuals that set his films apart. Unfortunately, with this film he took the back seat as executive producer. The director’s job was given to relative unknown Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, who does a fair job building on the story of the first film, but his attempts to ape Boyle’s visual style frequently descend into such confusion that it’s very difficult to tell what the hell is actually happening.

The actors mostly do a good job with a clunky script, though the plot makes for more of a standard zombie/virus movie than the first film. The fantastic music from the first film makes a welcome return and the effects are top-notch. Aside from a couple of utterly absurd moments (using a helicopter as a lawn mower is never a good idea), the film is only let down by the dodgy camera work and sloppy editing. If you enjoyed the first film, I recommend seeing this. I also recommend the accompanying graphic novel 28 Days Later: The Aftermath, as it expands on the story of the first film and is a solid chunk of post-apocalyptic nonsense in its own right.

Now all we need to do is wait for 28 Months Later, which is already in the works.