Day Twenty-Five: "28 Weeks Later"
28 Weeks Later is really stupid. Like a monument to stupidity.
This is the sequel to the really good 28 Days Later. It's much less good.
Twenty-eight weeks after the Rage outbreak, all the infected have starved to death. American troops have cleared out a section of London a.k.a. the U.K.'s MOST POPULOUS CITY (London has about 8.2 million people; Manchester has about 2.2 million.) and are moving U.K. citizens back into the area. However, they can only live in the Green Zone because the other areas of London haven't been cleared of the Rage infected corpses. This is obviously a brilliant idea.
Don is a Londoner who survived the infection but left his wife, Alice, to die. He meets back up with his children, Tammy and Andy, who were on a school trip to Spain. (Do British middle schools routinely take trips to other countries?) Andy, like Alice, has heterochromia. This is a plot-point that is spoiled by the box art and poster.
Tammy and Andy decide to escape the Green Zone and head to their old home to get their things. Teenagers manage to get around a U.S. military checkpoint and escape out into London. (Totally a brilliant idea!) They find Alice hiding in the attic of their old home. The troops bring her back into the Green Zone. (BRILLIANT!) There, they discover she has been bitten by an infected. She has the Rage virus but isn't suffering any of the effects. So Stringer Bell orders her killed. (SO BLOODY BRILLIANT.)
Meanwhile, Tammy and Andy have been returned back home to Don instead of being punished or asked to lead a special recon school. They tell Don they found Mum and the military has her. So Don sneaks into the highly classified and heavily guarded military hospital. (Apparently, uber sneaking skills are hereditary. Like heterochromia.) Don and Alice reunite in a truly touching scene, and they kiss. And now Don is infected with the T virus! Rage! He gouges Alice's eyes out and goes on a rampage. Wasn't it brilliant of them to bring the Rage carrier back into the one safe zone on the whole island?
Female military member Scarlett realizes that both Alice and Andy have heterochromia so they both must be immune to Rage. Because that's how that works. She tries to sneak them out of the city but is instead separated from Andy. He and the rest of the citizens of the Green Zone are all put into one big room. With Don. (SUPER BRILLIANT!) Don goes on a rampage and starts eating people. Andy escapes. The rest of the Green Zone citizens and infected escape into the streets of the Green Zone.
Andy finds Tammy, Scarlett, and male military member Jeremy Renner (who is hot). Jeremy Renner decides to let them all live for some reason. He contacts his friend, the helicopter pilot. Because Plot Contrivance. The friend warns them that city is going to be fire bombed. They manage to escape this as does most of the infected. Oops. Now the infected are out in London proper. (Aren't you glad they decided to only clear out one section of this massive city before they let people move back in?)
Bad things happen, Jeremy Renner is killed. More bad things happen, Scarlett is killed. Andy is bitten by an infected, but it turns out heterochormia really does make you immune to Rage. Plot Contrivance allows Andy and Tammy on his helicopter, even though he has no proof they were ever with Jeremy Renner and takes them to Paris. Despite the fact that Andy is bleeding and pretty obviously infected with the T Virus Rage! (SUPER SPECIAL AWESOME BRILLIANT!)
Cut to 28 Weeks Later (ha ha ha!) and now Paris is filled with Rage zombies. Nice job breaking it, Plot Contrivance/Andy/Tammy who was probably inadvertently infected by her brother at some point, meaning his dad killed his mum and now he's killed his sister.
So...if you read that plot summary, you already know how I feel about this movie.
It's brilliant!
Seriously, though, why would you move people into London? London is massive. It's actually a city made up of smaller cities. Why wouldn't you find a smaller place like Shrewsbury or something? Start small, then go big. Also, why would you move people into a city that you haven't finished clearing out yet? That's just asking for something bad to happen!
And then they brought SPOILER back into the safe zone. Congratulations, that's officially the dumbest thing I've seen in a horror movie. And I've seen a naked hologram programmed by a space Canadian ask Jason Voorhees if he wanted to have premarital sex.
Then, there's the guards. Seriously, are they all deaf and blind or something? Most of this movie is spent sneaking into or out of places that are supposed to be heavily fortified and heavily guarded.
And why is the U.S. military involved?
Jeremy Renner is hot, but unless you're watching all his films, I can't recommend this one. It just lends itself to massive amounts of rage. Which is ironic.
This is the sequel to the really good 28 Days Later. It's much less good.
Twenty-eight weeks after the Rage outbreak, all the infected have starved to death. American troops have cleared out a section of London a.k.a. the U.K.'s MOST POPULOUS CITY (London has about 8.2 million people; Manchester has about 2.2 million.) and are moving U.K. citizens back into the area. However, they can only live in the Green Zone because the other areas of London haven't been cleared of the Rage infected corpses. This is obviously a brilliant idea.
Don is a Londoner who survived the infection but left his wife, Alice, to die. He meets back up with his children, Tammy and Andy, who were on a school trip to Spain. (Do British middle schools routinely take trips to other countries?) Andy, like Alice, has heterochromia. This is a plot-point that is spoiled by the box art and poster.
Tammy and Andy decide to escape the Green Zone and head to their old home to get their things. Teenagers manage to get around a U.S. military checkpoint and escape out into London. (Totally a brilliant idea!) They find Alice hiding in the attic of their old home. The troops bring her back into the Green Zone. (BRILLIANT!) There, they discover she has been bitten by an infected. She has the Rage virus but isn't suffering any of the effects. So Stringer Bell orders her killed. (SO BLOODY BRILLIANT.)
Meanwhile, Tammy and Andy have been returned back home to Don instead of being punished or asked to lead a special recon school. They tell Don they found Mum and the military has her. So Don sneaks into the highly classified and heavily guarded military hospital. (Apparently, uber sneaking skills are hereditary. Like heterochromia.) Don and Alice reunite in a truly touching scene, and they kiss. And now Don is infected with the T virus! Rage! He gouges Alice's eyes out and goes on a rampage. Wasn't it brilliant of them to bring the Rage carrier back into the one safe zone on the whole island?
Female military member Scarlett realizes that both Alice and Andy have heterochromia so they both must be immune to Rage. Because that's how that works. She tries to sneak them out of the city but is instead separated from Andy. He and the rest of the citizens of the Green Zone are all put into one big room. With Don. (SUPER BRILLIANT!) Don goes on a rampage and starts eating people. Andy escapes. The rest of the Green Zone citizens and infected escape into the streets of the Green Zone.
Andy finds Tammy, Scarlett, and male military member Jeremy Renner (who is hot). Jeremy Renner decides to let them all live for some reason. He contacts his friend, the helicopter pilot. Because Plot Contrivance. The friend warns them that city is going to be fire bombed. They manage to escape this as does most of the infected. Oops. Now the infected are out in London proper. (Aren't you glad they decided to only clear out one section of this massive city before they let people move back in?)
Bad things happen, Jeremy Renner is killed. More bad things happen, Scarlett is killed. Andy is bitten by an infected, but it turns out heterochormia really does make you immune to Rage. Plot Contrivance allows Andy and Tammy on his helicopter, even though he has no proof they were ever with Jeremy Renner and takes them to Paris. Despite the fact that Andy is bleeding and pretty obviously infected with the T Virus Rage! (SUPER SPECIAL AWESOME BRILLIANT!)
Cut to 28 Weeks Later (ha ha ha!) and now Paris is filled with Rage zombies. Nice job breaking it, Plot Contrivance/Andy/Tammy who was probably inadvertently infected by her brother at some point, meaning his dad killed his mum and now he's killed his sister.
So...if you read that plot summary, you already know how I feel about this movie.
It's brilliant!
Seriously, though, why would you move people into London? London is massive. It's actually a city made up of smaller cities. Why wouldn't you find a smaller place like Shrewsbury or something? Start small, then go big. Also, why would you move people into a city that you haven't finished clearing out yet? That's just asking for something bad to happen!
And then they brought SPOILER back into the safe zone. Congratulations, that's officially the dumbest thing I've seen in a horror movie. And I've seen a naked hologram programmed by a space Canadian ask Jason Voorhees if he wanted to have premarital sex.
Then, there's the guards. Seriously, are they all deaf and blind or something? Most of this movie is spent sneaking into or out of places that are supposed to be heavily fortified and heavily guarded.
And why is the U.S. military involved?
Jeremy Renner is hot, but unless you're watching all his films, I can't recommend this one. It just lends itself to massive amounts of rage. Which is ironic.