May 08, 2007

28 Weeks Later Review

(Posted In Action Film News Horror USA and Canada )

28weeks-170l.jpgThough Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's 28 Weeks Later never quite lives up to Danny Boyle's original it's certainly not for lack of trying. Picking up the story a few months down the road Fresnadillo pictures a post-apocalyptic England, a country that has been forced to simply wait for the Rage-infected masses to die of starvation and are now in the midst of emerging from the aftermath under the watchful eye of the US military. Fresnadillo essentially gives us two pictures in one here, the opening act a taut survival piece that runs in parrallel to the plot line of the original with the second a blistering horror-action piece that captures the wholesale slaughter when the virus re-emerges. Both segments work well on their own though they never mesh together quite well enough for the film to feel like a fully satisfying whole.

Act one. Robert Carlyle - an inspired piece of casting - is Don, husband of Alice and one of a group of people who have barricaded themselves into a remote country farmhouse in an attempt to wait out the infection. Unarmed and terrified the group's only hope for survival is stealth, they must go unnoticed. Don and Alice's one great comfort that their two children were in Spain on a school trip when the outbreak hit and are, thus, safe. The group's stealth tactic has been a successful one and though nerves are fraying and food running short they are surviving and doing well until a simple act of mercy - taking in a stray child from the street - attracts the infecteds attention and brings ruin upon them. Seperated from Alice, Don flees in abject terror leaving his wife behind to be consumed.

Act two. Twenty eight weeks later. The infected have starved to death. England is a ruin but the rebuilding process is well under way. The country is being overseen by a US led NATO force, a segment of London repopulated, and citizens waiting in out of country refugee camps are being repatriated, including Don's two children Tammy and Andy who are reunited with their father who is now a building supervisor in the resettled London. Wanting something to remember their mother by the children break quarantine, find a way into the unsecured segment of the city and unwittingly reintroduce the Rage virus to the general population as a result.

Act three. Chaos. The virus spreads like wildfire, the military tries - and fails - to contain it, leading to guerrilla style street battles, fire bombings and the widespread use of chemical weapons with any attempt to differentiate between clean and infected quickly abandoned. The children are taken under the protection of a military medical officer, who believes them to hold a possible key to treating the virus, and a rogue sniper and struggle to find a path to freedom and safety.

Did I say 28 Weeks Later was two films in one? You could just as easily say it is three. Act one essentially mirrors the approach of the original, the small band of survivors beseiged on all sides by the infected. Act two shows us the aftermath and the rebuilding process. Act three shifts tone and focus, taking the franchise - which this is now clearly intended to become - away from the character based surival origins and into a more full blooded action mode. All three segments are well done when taken on their own devices but a quick glance at that synopsis should also expose the film's major weakness: with every act the focus shifts to different characters. The first film works so incredibly well because it charts the course of one small group, you learn about them and care about them and experience events through their eyes. This film, however, has a constantly shifting focus. We move from Don and Alice to Tammy and Andy to Scarlet and Doyle - the military characters - with no one group ever quite given enough time to really take hold. That there are a couple plot holes big enough to drive one of those military tankers through is an issue as well, but the principal problem lies in the fragmented character work.

But what of the strengths? Robert Carlyle is simply astounding in the early going, proving once again that he is simply an astounding performer when given decent material and the space to do his thing. Carlyle's been quiet lately and I can only hope that his performance here puts the man back into heavy demand. He's brilliant. As noisy as the film gets it also remembers the strength that comes with quiet, it understands that the most haunting images are sometimes the simplest and that there is a surprising power in the sight of a busy metropolis such as London deserted and left to rot. On the louder front there are those who read the military segments of the film as a not-so-subtle commentary on the US presence in Iraq, and there is certainly room to do that. And for those who simply want thrills there are plenty of those, the film boasting a fistful of crackling set pieces, some truly memorable kills, and a screenplay and edit job that combine to keep the pace popping.

28 Weeks Later is a rarity: a worthwhile sequel. It expands the premise of the first while remaing true to it, pushing things to their logical conclusions rather than simply repeating itself or reinventing - and thus disrespecting - what came before. The technical side is very strong, the film itself very entertaining. My hunch is that it will not bear up to repeat viewings as well as the first thanks to the lack of focus on the characters and some of the hinted-at plot holes but it is still one of the better action-horror pictures of recent years.

» Posted by Todd at May 8, 2007 02:54 AM
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Reader Comments

I felt that Danny Boyle's original had the exact same problem of not coming together into a satisfying whole. 28 DAYS LATER too became a totally different picture when the characters arrived at the military base. I'll watch 28 WEEKS LATER when it comes out in theaters here in a few months. Funny that Europe got the original long before the US and now it seems reversed for the sequel, probably because this time around the money came from an US studio.

» Posted by Caterpillar at May 8, 2007 06:05 AM

Thanks Todd for the great review! I'm definitely interested in seeing the movie now. I wasn't a huge fan of "28 Days Later" but the trailers and promos for "28 Weeks Later" are great, especially the poster art.

» Posted by James Maruyama at May 8, 2007 01:30 PM

Small typo .... "a taught survival piece" should be "a taut survival piece"

» Posted by Keith Loh at May 8, 2007 04:14 PM

You are correct, sir!

» Posted by Todd Brown at May 8, 2007 05:11 PM

Please can you tell me what was the amazing music that played first when Robert Carlysle was being chased

» Posted by Bellmont at May 9, 2007 05:32 PM

this movie seems amazing and i just love the art im going to look up photos of the infected they look scary

» Posted by tristan gore at May 9, 2007 07:41 PM

Hey, The song is

Artist : Muse
Track: Shrinking Universe

It's near the end of the song.

» Posted by Scott Rhodie at May 10, 2007 12:25 PM

I loved the movie. Very entertaining stuff. Yes, it didn't focus too much on the characters but it sure was one hell of a ride.

» Posted by FiveTalents at May 11, 2007 12:14 AM

I loved it, but I just wish it was about a half hour longer... :(

Can't wait till "28 MONTHS later" :D

» Posted by God at May 12, 2007 04:30 AM

Oh dear. Let's hope not. I dunno guys and gals. I wasn't thrilled with it. Everything was 'too easy' is you catch my drift. Granted I don't think I can ever recall when night vision was used THAT way for a kill. But then great kills like that were ruined by the helicopter kills. That was hardly inspiring and knocked the film down a couple notches. Nope, everything happened along too easy. It doesn't hold a candle up to Boyle's.

» Posted by Mack at May 13, 2007 04:44 PM

i am so sick of reviewers saying they dont like the movie, when the oublic loves the movie, websites show fans vote the movie ratings average between 4.0 and 4.8 out of 5!!!!!!
its a really good, great graphic, suspencful, scary, catchy, addicting, movie and ithe reason this idiot rated it low because he doesnt know what a horror movie is! anyways, myself i rate it best movie, 10 out of 10

» Posted by Herbie at May 18, 2007 06:43 PM

Hey Belmont, I've been searching for that too! It's actually 'In a Heartbeat' by In the House. It's one of last tracks on the '28 Days Later' soundtrack. The Muse song is used in the trailer and not actually in the film at all if I remember rightly. I've been after it ever since it was used in the Peugeot 206 Gti 180 tv advert from a few yrs ago, where all the drivers end up with massive creases in the backs of their shirts/ tops.

» Posted by xxapexx at May 20, 2007 11:03 AM

This film is OK as a standalone, but as a sequel it is a Joke. It started out reasonably, using a similar visual style to the original, but as soon as the virus starts to spread again, it becomes a silly teenage Slasher flic! Robert Carlyle started out so well, just to be demoted to similar status to Freddy or Jason. The 'Zombies' have no intellignece whatsoever, so why did Robert Carlyle's character start stalking his own children? Pathetic. The writers obviously burnt out in the first half of the film, and simply couldn't maintain the pace. They resorted to silly late 90's teen slasher horror flic mode and turned one meaningless 'Zombie' into a supercharged mutant monster zombie, capable of thinking, driving a car, tracking poeple over concrete and hunting down his children. If he was still sentient, wouldn't he try to protect them? The absurdity of this plot twist allowed an otherwise reasonable film to decend to the level of a farce. I found myself cringing at plot twists rather than the shock, horrors and violent bits everyone else seemed to wince at. Come on folks. We knew that if Hollywood got their hands on it it would become a flashy action film. Well done, they did it pretty well. But to show utter contempt for the story and background built by the original was utter insanity. Any moron with half a brain could have conjured up a better way to make the children's escape difficult, than having their dad trying to hunt them down as if the virus had not got him and he was actually a deranged killer that escaped out of prison. Oh, call me picky but... Art is art. Each to their own etc, but the excessive camera shaking in the violent scenes did not help. I'd have prefered not to have had to concentrate so hard, to simply see what was going on. This is a blood and guts movie, so stop obscuring the blood and guts!

» Posted by JohnnyboyLeeds at May 21, 2007 09:07 PM

wow johnny boy your a fucking moron

» Posted by WOW at May 24, 2007 12:40 AM

I my god. Ok, everyone is entitled to their opinion, BUT you could drive a truck through the holes in the negative reviews. You can see they call a spade, a spade and don't open theirs minds to see how a story can expand, and not just be samey.

I LOVED THIS FILM! Horror is my thing, but this is the FIRST time I have actually considered leaving after the first scene, I was TERRIFIED, and left the cinema feeling VERY disturbed.

So, not enough time to develop the characters. Whats wrong with that? Don't you see the point? Characters almost always develop and you go on a journey with them. What I like here is that you are with a main character and suddenly: DEAD! Just like that, that is how easy it is with the rage virus around, no guarantee of survival, and lets face it, the MAIN main charecters always get out alive. This is showing you they might not, and you have to move on... quickly.

I wasn't totally keen on the slightly intelligent rage zombie, however, what it was telling me was that the virus had mutated, as viruses generally do. It passed through "you know who" (I won't spoil the suprise) and then it changed when he got it. Maybe it changed again when it reached the other people.

Anyway, this film is blatantly a sequal to the other, but could easily stand alone. Thats what makes a good sequel.

Expand your minds people, then you may find you'll enjoy life a little more.

» Posted by bubbachix at May 25, 2007 04:27 AM

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