At the end of 28 Days, the prequel to this one, we were
left with a United Kingdom destroyed by a deadly virus
that turned people into zombies. They bite each other,
turned each other into a zombie and repeat steps one and
two until everyone becomes one. 28 Weeks Later picks up
precisely that long, 28 Weeks, after the first one.
Within that timeframe, the zombies had starved to death,
the United States setup military occupation and
disinfected the entire country. At this point, parts of
London are ruled safe and reoccupation of the country is
safe to begin. Robert Carlyle, of Trainspotting and The
Full Monty, plays one of the only survivors of the
outbreak named Donald. Donald welcomes his two children,
who miraculously were sent out of the country only days
before the outbreak, back home. Donald has the
undesirable job of explaining the death of their mother
to his children, and if you think that's bad
enough...wait til you hear how it went down. The movie
never gives you the feel of waiting for the shoe to drop
in the first act. Even though logically something has to
bring back the virus...or else we have no movie, right?
Brian's
Rating: B : After watching this movie, it is clear
to me where Valve Studios got there premise for the
recent Left 4 Dead title that was released in late
'08. Its a different class of zombie now days.
Reading Scott's review, I see there was a prequel to
this, and it may have been good to see that first.
The viewer is left to infer many details about the
culprit virus that apparently turns people into
raging, man eating, pit bulls. It makes an infected
person go crazy, effectively making them a zombie.
However there are some virus etiquette rules that I
was never able to figure out. For example, sometimes
it was kosher to just outright shred and eat a victim,
while other times a single bite would suffice to turn
the victim over to their side, yet other times, they
would brutally kill a victim, but then leave the
corpse. This isn't just pure crazy rage, there must
have been some trigger to make the choice, but I
couldn't figure it out.
The mechanism to reintroduce the virus was a bit
contrived, but once you get past that, the movie made
for a good zombie flick. There were plenty of moments
of suspense, cool death scenes, and music to make your
heart pump. I enjoyed watching it although it was not
as good as "I Am Legend" (with the original directors
ending that does not completely ruin the film).
I mean, come one, who doesn't like watching crazed
maniac zombies tear up humanity?
