Movie Review: 28 Weeks Later
After a few abortive attempts, xhollydayx and I saw 28 Weeks Later. After the subpar Spiderman 3 and the the numerous bad reviews of Shrek 3 I had lowered my expectations of this sequel to "gee, I hope it doesn't suck too bad." After all, none of the original cast returned and it wasn't even the same director as Danny Boyle moved to the producers chair. How could good could it possibly be? As it turns out, pretty damn good.
The movie starts 15 days after the outbreak (ie, 13 days before the events of 28 Days Later) with a nifty little action sequence. Rage-infected Zombies break into the cottage where Don (Robert Carlyle, the only 'name' in this movie) and Alice. Don is separated from Alice and leaves her for dead, which is probably not unreasonabe given the circumstances. Flash forward 28 weeks. All of the zombies have starved to death. The scientists have determined that the virus cannot live in animals or airborne, so it is presumed to have been wiped out. A NATO team has decontaminated and secured an island in the Thames. Don is reunited with his kids, Andy & Tammy, who were out of the U.K. on a school trip during the outbreak.
A few days later the kids sneak out to their old house in London, and find Alice alive and well. She is taken back to the secure zone, where they find that she is infected with the Rage virus but a genetic immunity keeps her from going zombie. Don sneaks into containment and gives her a kiss on the mouth. As we all remember from the first movie, the Rage virus transmits instantly via fluid contact, so Don, who lacks the immunity, immediately becomes a zombie. And all hell breaks loose and the US Army immediately executes Code Red: kill everything in the area that moves whether or not it is infected. Army Medico Scarlet knows that the kids might have the immunity as well, so she tries to get them out of the target zone with the help of Delta Force sniper Doyle. They dodge zombies and the best efforts of the US Army to shoot, gas and bomb every living thing in the area into oblivion.
This movie has a lot of positives:
- Awesome sweeping shots of an abandoned London.
- Lots of hand held camera work in dark areas which makes the zombie attacks quite frightening and conveys a sense of panic and breakdown. The slaughter and panic when a single zombie enters a room crowded with unarmed civilians beautifully illustrates something that was only verbally described in the first movie.
- A story that is internally consistent. Everything that happens makes sense in the context of the facts we've been given about the Rage virus and its transmission. There are no deus ex machina. Only three mildly implausible things happen: One is Don being able to sneak into a secured army lab (sort of explained away by his have card access to everything thanks to his job). The second is two different Delta Force members disobeying direct orders. Both of these items are relatively minor weaknesses in the grand scheme of things. The third is someone sprinting after being shot in the leg, but that's a fairly standard movie weakness so I'm going to ignore it :-)
- The scenario of the US Army / Nato moving in, cleaning out part of London and bringing civilians back into what was just 6 months ago a plague zone is exactly the kind of stupidness a bureaucracy would think of, so I don't find that implausible. Nor do I find the Army's Code Red plans to be far off from what would probably actually happen in a real world scenario.
- Child actors who didn't make me want to strangle them.
- Really great set up for a sequel (28 Months Later?)
- A helicopter cutting up zombies with its rotor blades. Awesomeness!
So does this compare with the original? The first movie had a great concept and good cinematography, but its ending relied on the viewer believing that the male lead could suddenly turn from an ordinary guy into Rambo for the last 20 minutes, and it's original ending was weaker and less plausible than the alternate ending they tacked on. I'd give the edge to the sequel. In any event, 28 Weeks Later is certainly worth your time and money if you like action, horror or zombie movies.
The movie starts 15 days after the outbreak (ie, 13 days before the events of 28 Days Later) with a nifty little action sequence. Rage-infected Zombies break into the cottage where Don (Robert Carlyle, the only 'name' in this movie) and Alice. Don is separated from Alice and leaves her for dead, which is probably not unreasonabe given the circumstances. Flash forward 28 weeks. All of the zombies have starved to death. The scientists have determined that the virus cannot live in animals or airborne, so it is presumed to have been wiped out. A NATO team has decontaminated and secured an island in the Thames. Don is reunited with his kids, Andy & Tammy, who were out of the U.K. on a school trip during the outbreak.
A few days later the kids sneak out to their old house in London, and find Alice alive and well. She is taken back to the secure zone, where they find that she is infected with the Rage virus but a genetic immunity keeps her from going zombie. Don sneaks into containment and gives her a kiss on the mouth. As we all remember from the first movie, the Rage virus transmits instantly via fluid contact, so Don, who lacks the immunity, immediately becomes a zombie. And all hell breaks loose and the US Army immediately executes Code Red: kill everything in the area that moves whether or not it is infected. Army Medico Scarlet knows that the kids might have the immunity as well, so she tries to get them out of the target zone with the help of Delta Force sniper Doyle. They dodge zombies and the best efforts of the US Army to shoot, gas and bomb every living thing in the area into oblivion.
This movie has a lot of positives:
- Awesome sweeping shots of an abandoned London.
- Lots of hand held camera work in dark areas which makes the zombie attacks quite frightening and conveys a sense of panic and breakdown. The slaughter and panic when a single zombie enters a room crowded with unarmed civilians beautifully illustrates something that was only verbally described in the first movie.
- A story that is internally consistent. Everything that happens makes sense in the context of the facts we've been given about the Rage virus and its transmission. There are no deus ex machina. Only three mildly implausible things happen: One is Don being able to sneak into a secured army lab (sort of explained away by his have card access to everything thanks to his job). The second is two different Delta Force members disobeying direct orders. Both of these items are relatively minor weaknesses in the grand scheme of things. The third is someone sprinting after being shot in the leg, but that's a fairly standard movie weakness so I'm going to ignore it :-)
- The scenario of the US Army / Nato moving in, cleaning out part of London and bringing civilians back into what was just 6 months ago a plague zone is exactly the kind of stupidness a bureaucracy would think of, so I don't find that implausible. Nor do I find the Army's Code Red plans to be far off from what would probably actually happen in a real world scenario.
- Child actors who didn't make me want to strangle them.
- Really great set up for a sequel (28 Months Later?)
- A helicopter cutting up zombies with its rotor blades. Awesomeness!
So does this compare with the original? The first movie had a great concept and good cinematography, but its ending relied on the viewer believing that the male lead could suddenly turn from an ordinary guy into Rambo for the last 20 minutes, and it's original ending was weaker and less plausible than the alternate ending they tacked on. I'd give the edge to the sequel. In any event, 28 Weeks Later is certainly worth your time and money if you like action, horror or zombie movies.