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27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A worthy successor to the original., May 11, 2007
28 Weeks Later... (Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, 2007)
So Alex Garland didn't write the 28 Days Later... sequel, nor did Danny Boyle direct it. I felt a bit better about this after hearing that the reason for both was time issues/contractual obligations (both were involved in the much-anticipated Sunshine when this got off the ground). So they brought in Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (Intacto) to both co-write and direct. I was still a touch leery walking into the theater, but the end result is that the movie was not as good as I'd hoped-- but a great deal better than I expected.
We start off with a group of survivors holed up in a cottage at the beginning of the outbreak (if you saw the original, the opening scene happens, presumably, while Cillian Murphy's character is still in a coma). Two of the people stuck there are Alice (Catherine McCormack) and Don (Robert Carlyle). During dinner one night, there's a pounding on the door, and they admit a young boy (Gary Robert Kelly's favorite actor, Beans El-Balawi). Unfortunately, the infected are hot on his tail, and you can guess the rest. Don escapes. 28 weeks later, the repatriation of Britain begins, and Don's kids Andy (the similarly wonderfully-named Mackintosh Muggleton in his first screen role) and Tammy (V for Vendetta's Imogen Poots) are reunited with him. But, as you know if you've seen thirty seconds of any trailer to the film, maybe they were a bit hasty in bringing people back to the island...
The good news is that Boyle did, in fact, act as second unit director, and directed a few scenes. The bad news, which isn't really so bad, is that it's pretty obvious which scenes they are. While the behind-the-scenes stuff they've been showing on TV singles out Boyle's direction of the opening scene, there are a few others scattered throughout as well. Boyle's adrenaline-rush jump cuts show up now and again, and there's an almost eerie similarity to the first film in those scenes. This is helped along by the fact that the producers used, for all intents and purposes, the same soundtrack John Murphy came up with for the first film, but without the silly happy synthesizer stuff that popped up now and again in that one. (And no uncredited Godspeed You Black Emperor! tracks this time round, either.) That said, Fresnadillo is a strong director in his own right, and he holds his own here. The story is less epic than the first one, with the focus squarely on Don and his kids, along with two army officers who try to help them escape the new outbreak of contagion. This could have easily become a weakness, with such a simple storyline, but Fresnadillo turns it into a strength. There are a lot of places where he could have branched out, and frankly I'd have liked to see some of them, but he kept focus throughout. He also didn't make the usual sequel mistake of showing the monsters too much, sticking to Boyle's original jump-cut plan when the infected get screen time (which is surprisingly little, actually); you get flashes, but with one ugly exception towards the end of the movie, we never get the whole "let's unveil the monster in all its glory" wankery so common in horror films with big effects budgets. (And even in the exception, he keeps it to a minimum and still uses the close-ups that make the infected so scary in the first place.) There were a few times I wished Garland had written the script, but Fresnadillo and his compatriots (who include the BAFTA-nominated Rowan Joffe) did well, for the most part.
The one truly weak point in the movie is that it's all set up very conveniently. You have a basic idea of what's coming from the first big plot twist (or, if you're more observant than I am, about ten minutes into the movie). That said, Fresnadillo still has a trick or two up his sleeve for the big payoff at the end of the movie, and oh, the payoff is so very, very worth it. Everything's set up nicely, and then Fresnadillo and co. sweep everything we think we know off the table.
Now, I know there are a few people who aren't going to like the sequel no matter what because it's a sequel, but in general, if you liked the first one, I think you'll get a kick out of this one, as well. Certainly worth paying matinée price for, even if your matinée pricing just skyrocketed like ours did. ****
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94 of 111 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The perfect horror sequel, July 19, 2007
When I heard that this was coming out, I was not expecting much. The original is arguably THE zombie classic (discounting the hysterical "Shaun of the Dead") of the last decade, but the sequel involved almost none of the original minds that brought us the stark terror of "28 Days Later", which combined the threats of cataclysmic disease and it's deadly effects on the mind which caused those infected by what became known as the "Rage Virus" to viciously and relentlessly attack the uninfected, either killing the victim or spreading the disease. A sequel had potential of course, but it seemed like it would be a by-the-books popcorn affair. Boy, was I wrong.
People complained that the first film started too slowly and was boring for the first twenty minutes; I disagree, but that issue has been addressed nonetheless. The opening sequence flashes back to another group of survivors during the original outbreak. Their fate is one you won't forget; it is startling, chaotic, terrifying, dramatic, hopeless, and heartbreaking, all within one fairly short chain of events. That's when I knew this one was going to be everything I wished it would be and it never let me down. This film is epic and personal, gruesome yet tearful, and manages to give you everything you want, even when you had no clue that you wanted it.
The evolution of the Rage Virus is a fascinating one in that it manages to outlive the death of all of the infected (from starvation) by exploiting a rare gene that allows some people to be carriers of the virus without succumbing to it's effects. The result: even kissing your wife hello could be the catalyst for a new, deadly outbreak. The story kicks in 28 weeks after the infection dies and the US military is overseeing the repopulation of London; or a district of London to be precise. Every possible step is taken to ensure that the horror that was the infection that wiped Great Britain's population clean off the earth is not repeated. Naturally, the virus finds a way. As the crushing mass of humanity flees from the compromised quarantine and the murderous zombies, there is an amazing scene where the rooftop snipers are frantically trying to distinguish the civilians from the infected as they run down a bottlenecked street. The chaos and hopelessness of the situation are palpable as the camera shows us through a soldier's scope just what he is up against in dramatic fashion. The way that these situations of large-scale human terror are turned into personal struggles is what makes this movie a stone cold classic in my mind where it otherwise would have been just another great horror film.
The cinematography impresses as well. There are plenty more of those iconic shots of deserted London that bring back memories of the first film and make me wish I lived there so I could appreciate them more. Another nice touch. And the final shot of the film, while not unexpected, is one that will chill you to the bone and thrill you at the same time.
I've spent significant time trying to think of a horror sequel that surpassed the original so superbly and I honestly can't think of one. The closest would be the original "Dawn of the Dead", but I still prefer "Night of the Living Dead" to "Dawn" so "28 Weeks Later" takes it. This is an absolute take-no-prisoners, hard "R", work of terror that must be viewed by all professing to be horror fans.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
What a shame ..., December 2, 2007
What a disgrace to the original this was.
The short form: A wonderful, moody movie, zombie-like foes who were relentless and brutal, but still (relatively) believable with weaknesses turns out a sequel with uber-monsters, unbelievable coincidences, and overkill that never actually kills any of their targets.
Most people classify these as zombie films because of the basic similarity ... near-human critters with an insatiable need to destroy us, born of malice, food, what-have-you. It doesn't necessarily matter where they come from, how or why they do what they do, fast or slow ... what matters, what makes movies like this is the all-too-human reactions to these impossible circumstances. How we act, how we react. It was the secret to the success of Shaun of the Dead, Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Living Dead, even some of the Return of the Living Dead series. It's the realism of the human response.
This is the failure of 28 Weeks Later. Gone is the Human response that was so authentic and believable. Welcome to gross caricature and incredible coincidence. Welcome to unabashed popcorn-guzzling movie reality where the American Military assists survivors in repopulating a so-called "safe zone" in the middle of a possible viral zone with checkpoints based more on cameras than actual guards.
Pay no attention to the fact that the janitor / superintendant not only has full access to all the residential zones (which he abuses by setting off the zone-wide alarm right near the start), but also all restricted military biohazard quarantine zones as well.
Ignore the ease with which two children escape from the safe zone, steal a corpse's motorcycle keys and return to their home, despite the possible horror and infection that this should logically bring.
Pretend that somehow, a single survivor was able to evade previously-shown certain death and survive for (counts the weeks) 8 months (7 months + 28 days, approximately), maybe less, and move the presumably incredible distance from rural Britain to Main Street Central, London, despite the fact that later in the film, the Infected clearly have no reason to NOT attack this survivor.
Imagine that somehow, one of the monsters, despite being infected by "Rage" is able to utilize previously-unknown ninja-like stealth and cruel, sadistic patience rather that the blind, unthinking blunt rage from which the virus gets its name, and that this one monster gains superhuman resistance, extranormal senses and nearly infallible tracking ability.
Tell yourself that it is somehow possible that the best helicopter pilot on the planet is assigned security and is able to destroy legions of zombies by flying straight at them, in effect being more effective at killing a crowd of zombies then neighborhood-wide firebombing, nigh-instantaneously-fatal nerve gas (bearing in mind that these are just crazy people, more or less), and teams of highly trained snipers and soldiers in Biohazard (NBC) gear with flamethrowers and (assumedly) the support and equipment that would be necessary to back them.
And, if you're still willing to spend time or money watching this film, consider that the only unpredictability in this film comes how different the "uberzombie" is from the rest of the zombies. This film does not surprise with suspense so much as it bludgeons you with shock, and even then, it seems more gratuitous rather than done for any sort of reasonable plot / story / artistic decision, sort of a "let's pile on the gore to really scare people!"
Terribly disappointing, from its unrealistic human response to incredible plot holes and coincidences and an ending that tells the viewer, "congratulations, what you just paid for was nothing more than an hour-plus ad for a sequel we hope to con you into watching," this movie is can generously be noted as "sub-par," and far worse if you're any fan of the original 28 Days Later.
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