Zombie films were all the rage in all of the 2000's. Some, like me, would say that they kind of overdid it and it seemed like every other film and series had something to do with zombies. When 28 Days Later came out I really appreciated it even though at that point I was kind of sick of zombie films already. I feel as though they approached that one with a different and fresh perspective focusing on the loneliness of being one of the few human remnants left in an area rather than the constant threat of impending invasion from the recently zombified. The "28" saga takes a bit of a twist on zombification in that the turn from human to zombie happened extremely rapidly which meant you or your friend getting bit would change things extremely fast. There were other aspects of it that made that one fresh to me as well but a lot of this might have to do with the fact that both of the films were British productions and they seem to do things differently, and in a lot of ways better, than the Hollywood machine.
With the announcement of 28 Years Later coming soon with some seriously great actors in it I got excited like most people did and this encouraged me to go back and re-watch 28 Weeks Later because the only thing I remembered about it was the epic opening sequence where the father is forced to abandon his family in their country house that they have been holed up in for so long in the English countryside.
As the film carried on I started to realize that this film was not as good as I remembered it being and in fact, it's actually quite bad and probably propped up by fans of the original that want the sequel to be a lot better than it actually is. It also may have been manipulated by the studios that are making 28 Years and this is something I am always suspicious of.
The reason that I so vividly remember the opening 8 minutes of this film and only that is because of the fact that in my opinion that is actually the only part of this movie that is inventive and fresh. The rest of it just goes down the typical path of action films that this genre and many others are so inundated with that it is so predictable and boring. I also feel as though they felt compelled to put some "star power" in this one as opposed to the first one that featured mostly, people that were then nobodies in the acting world. Of course Cillian Murphy has gone on to do rather epic things but in 2002 most people had no idea who he was.
Anyway, they throw in Rose Byrne and Jeremy Renner, both of whom I actually like, but they were not necessary. Idris Alba being thrown in there as well was just as unnecessary and I think they wasted a bunch of money on everyone's salary in this because it would have been the same film without them.
That isn't the main issue I have with this movie though, the problem is that it just gets rather boring after the initial really intense opening sequence that honestly, sets a bad tone for the rest of the film because the rest of it cannot keep pace with that. I know they say to start strong and end strong, but the rest of the movie is just a series of rather convenient situations that are basically impossible, but they needed them for plot progression so they made them happen anyway.
The opening segment that shows a man running for his life while also crying because moments before he was forced to abandon his wife and child is truly moving. The entire everything about this is just brilliant. Then from that point forward we are thrust into a military type of film where the USA has taken over the UK and has strict rules about where people can go and what they can do. So strict in fact, that a duo of children easily circumvent their blockade the very first time they try.
Not only do they get around the guards and the blockades with such ease that zombies definitely would have done it by now if that was possible, but they also find and operate motorbikes that have been abandoned for a while now. As someone that has owned a motorbike in the past I know that this is not how they work. I don't expect pure realism in films but convenient plot contrivances such as this are things that really annoy me in films. The worst such plot device is not having a mobile phone signal, but this whole conveniently placed vehicle that starts immediately is a close 2nd.
It's almost as if they felt bad about making that so easy because they go the opposite direction much later in the film when they stumble upon a car that refuses to start and thus requires the sacrifice of one of their own to push it and roll-start it. Of course the keys to this vehicle were conveniently in the car also, as if that was something that anybody actually does in modern times.
28 weeks later isn't really a complete story so much as it is a combination of rather random events where at the end we are left wondering what the ending actually is, which is something I normally enjoy but in the case of 28 Weeks Later it was obviously an open ended film to allow for another installment should the producers choose to do so. They waited nearly 20 years to do it, but well, it served its purpose well I suppose.
I wasn't moved by any of the characters really. Jeremy Renner's crisis of conscious is a little bit interesting when he is told to kill civilians and takes great issue with this but later on in the film he is fired upon by his fellow soldiers and this doesn't make a great deal of sense. Actually, nothing really makes sense as soon as the kids easily break through the "green zone" barricades that are heavily guarded around the clock by trained super-soldiers.
I don't really know how to fully explain how this all falls apart after the very short act 1, but it definitely does fall apart and the fact that it became a human vs. human story instead of human vs. zombie was OK and The Walking Dead really ran with that one, but in this movie I simply didn't find any of the scenarios, such as outrunning a napalming of an area on foot, to be at all believable.
Also there is the question of one particular zombie always being hot on the tails of the kids is really silly and the opposite of everything we have been taught about zombies by these very movies up to this point. They are just breaking the rules they established in order to attempt to add more to the story but at least in my opinion it doesn't really work.
Should I watch it?
I can't really recommend that you see this one as it should be clear from what I have already written above. I think if you haven't seen any of the "28" films go and watch 28 Days Later. Aside from a couple of stupid moments that film is absolutely epic and deserves the fame that it has. While I am sure there are going to be some people out there that disagree with me on this, I say give this one a hard pass as I feel it will actually decrease your enthusiasm for next year's 28 release.
This movie can be legally streamed with Hulu, Paramount Plus, and AppleTV+