28 Weeks Later

Plot

28 Weeks after the outbreak of the rage virus, things have seemingly returned to a ‘new normal’.

When two young children break into a quarantine zone, and discover their believed dead mother – who has been infected by the virus, but non symptomatic.

Will her “return” to them, along with an eager doctors desire to find a cure, and her husbands desire to be reunited threaten the new peace time?

Cast/Characters

As this is a ‘stand alone’ sequel, we don’t have any returning characters or actors from the first film. However, there is a stacked cast that include…

Jeremy Renner as Boyle, a US Soldier who is also a sniper. He “watches tv” through scope at those in the buildings, and in the third act joins a group trying to escape the city when it is being overrun with zombies.

Harold Perrineau plays Flynn, one of the helicopter pilots. He is good friends with Renner, and assists a group escape the city late in the film.

Robert Carlyle – plays Don, who is the ‘focal’ part of the story. He escapes a herd of zombie’s early in the film, abandoning his wife as he does so. He is *** spoiler *** the cause of the second outbreak in the end of the second act in the film.

Rose Byrne plays Scarlet. She is the Chief Medical Officer of the Army, who discovers that Don’s wife ??? is immune to the outbreak, and tries to get her children Andy and Tammy to safety. Byrne will go on to have a tremendous career, but her talent here is slightly green with a weaker performance than she can do.

Tammy and Andy are played by Imogen Poots and Mackintosh Muggleton, both do a solid job and are the ‘heart’ of the film with their brother/sister relationship.

Idris Elba plays Gen Stone, who is slightly underused. I would have loved to see more of him. His American accent is flawed, and is slightly grating at times. There I said it!

Catherine McCormack plays Alice, Don’s wife and mother to Andy and Tammy.

Breakdown

Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo with Cinematography by Enrique Chediak. They take over from Danny Boyle (who EP’s along with original writer Alex Garland).

It is similar to the first film, but with less ‘chaotic’ camera moments during the attack sequences. I loved the improved ‘dead’ London – this time seen from air.

Sequel to the near perfect zombie film of 2002 – told from the perspective of another group of individuals, who have seemingly found each other ‘during the events. One of them is Don, along with wife Alice, and others are set upon by the un-dead (which brings you right into the chaos after moments of calm. Don, choosing self-preservation escapes a heard of zombies to salvation, leaving ?? to seemingly perish in the attack.

Cut to 28 weeks later, we discover that the ‘virus’ is all but a memory – with safe zones and ‘no go’ zones in London. The world is back to ‘normality’ as it was implied in the first film.

Don, back in central London, is thrilled when children Andy and Tammy are returned to him, having spent months in quarantine. Poor Andy is having nightmares of the events and is missing mum and home terribly. With his loving big sister, who too is desperate to return home, break into the NO GO zone and discover that mum is still alive – infected – but not turned!!!

This then turns into a military nightmare as they must work out what to do with her, (1) Kill the infected, 2) Contain the infected, and lastly 3) if failure… extermination!

The second and third act become a war between the US Army, after Don – breaking in to see his wife is infected… by loves kiss of all things. As his infection seemingly causes the second outbreak, the army must try to do all they can to conquer steps one and two in the rules mentioned earlier.

With the help of army doctor Scarlet, who discovers that Alice is immune (and may have passed her immunity on to Andy and Tammy – she does all she can to get them to safety – and quickly finds solace in empathetic sniper Doyle – who refuses to accept rule #3 as an option… especially when it comes to kids.

There is some quite graphic violence at times, and some of it feels almost comically over the top, especially when helicopter pilot ?? uses the rotors of his copter to plow through a herd of the un-dead later in the film.

Similar to the other day’s review on AVPR – the film ends with step 3 – extermination – (not before a frightening moment where the characters are chased in a pitch black subway with only one character looking through some night vision goggles!

Overall

Solid sequel, that both shows a different side to the outbreak, and also expands on it – and how it eventually becomes a global issue.

Good action sequences, with mostly sound performances (some a little weaker than others).

Would be followed by a series of 28 Years Later movies in the 2020s.

3.5/5

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