This sequel to the film '28 Days Later' has some of the bursts of excitement and terrifying moments found in the first film, but the thrills are not continuous and the terror is not contagious.
Zombie films are all the rage lately with the 'Resident Evil' series, the recent George Romero film 'Land of the Dead', the re-make of the old Romero film, 'Dawn of the Dead', and this one, all released within the last ten years. While some of these films are fresh and innovative, others merely tread water without giving horror fans anything new or noteworthy.
Unfortunately '28 Weeks Later' falls into the latter category. With a story not as tightly-wound or well captured cinematically, it has less endearing main characters and overcompensates with gore over the true gut-wrenching horror of the original film.
In this sequel, Britain has been locked down from outside contact since the spread of the ’rage virus’ which caused people to become homicidal maniacs. All of the victims of the virus have since starved to death and it is believed all living carriers of the virus are also dead. An American led NATO force has taken control of London, breaking the city up into sectors in an attempt to clean it up and prevent any future outbreaks. Survivors have come to London to re-build it and the first Brits from outside the country, absent during the outbreak, are allowed to return.
The story centers around two returning children, their father, Don (Robert Carlyle; 'The Beach'), who was a survivor of the viral outbreak, and their mother who was not. The military stumbles upon someone who is a carrier of the virus and, of course, the virus eventually spreads outside military containment and quickly gets out of control.
The movie starts well with a back story of Don, his wife and some of the other survivors hidden in a hamlet in the countryside. A few of the scenes set in the country are truly scary, including a chase scene of running alone down a hill with dozens of zombie-like people in pursuit - and the use of a helicopter to chop down rage-infected people is just plain awesome. Where the movie runs into problems is when the military gets involved and the action switches to the city. At times, the camerawork is too jittery and it is hard to see exactly what is happening to the characters we’re trying to follow, especially in the dark city scenes. This becomes both frustrating and nauseating instead of suspenseful. The story then focuses primarily on the children who make enough ill-advised choices to leave you relatively indifferent to the plight they have partly created.
The poorly shot scenes and the lack of suspense may be blamed on new director and writer, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. Filming a citywide zombie movie is a daunting undertaking, and could have been too large a scale for an untried director - this is Fresnadillo's first major film.
Losing the first director in a film series can itself be enough to de-rail a series since it is typically the first director’s vision that makes an original film so great. However, unlike what happened to the 'Resident Evil' series after its second film, this horror series is not irreparably broken; it just needs to be fine-tuned before any additional sequels are made, preferably by giving the story back to first film director Danny Boyle.
This sequel to '28 Days Later' is passable but not in the same league as its predecessor.
Rated R for strong violence and gore, language and some sexuality/nudity.
