28 Weeks Later… (Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, 2007)
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So Alex Garland didn’t write the 28 Days Later… sequel, nor did Danny Boyle vow it. I felt a bit better about this after hearing that the reason for both was time issues/contractual obligations (both were enthusiastic in the much-anticipated Sunshine when this got off the ground) . So they brought in Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (Intacto) to both co-write and command. I was level-headed a touch leery walking into the theater, but the destroy result is that the movie was not as top-notch as I’d hoped– but a large deal better than I expected.
We launch off with a group of survivors holed up in a cottage at the beginning of the outbreak (if you saw the unusual, the opening scene happens, presumably, while Cillian Murphy’s character is mild in a coma) . Two of the people stuck there are Alice (Catherine McCormack) and Don (Robert Carlyle) . During dinner one night, there’s a pounding on the door, and they admit a young boy (Gary Robert Kelly’s approved actor, Beans El-Balawi) . Unfortunately, the infected are hot on his tail, and you can guess the rest. Don escapes. 28 weeks later, the repatriation of Britain begins, and Don’s kids Andy (the similarly wonderfully-named Mackintosh Muggleton in his first mask role) and Tammy (V for Vendetta’s Imogen Poots) are reunited with him. But, as you know if you’ve seen thirty seconds of any trailer to the film, maybe they were a bit quick in bringing people aid to the island…
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The gracious news is that Boyle did, in fact, act as second unit director, and directed a few scenes. The poor news, which isn’t really so dreadful, is that it’s glorious distinct which scenes they are. While the behind-the-scenes stuff they’ve been showing on TV singles out Boyle’s direction of the opening scene, there are a few others scattered throughout as well. Boyle’s adrenaline-rush jump cuts exhibit up now and again, and there’s an almost eerie similarity to the first film in those scenes. This is helped along by the fact that the producers extinct, for all intents and purposes, the same soundtrack John Murphy came up with for the first film, but without the comical delighted synthesizer stuff that popped up now and again in that one. (And no uncredited Godspeed You Dismal Emperor! tracks this time round, either.) That said, Fresnadillo is a strong director in his contain legal, and he holds his bear here. The anecdote is less memoir than the first one, with the focus squarely on Don and his kids, along with two army officers who try to relieve them elope the unusual outbreak of contagion. This could have easily become a weakness, with such a simple storyline, but Fresnadillo turns it into a strength. There are a lot of places where he could have branched out, and frankly I’d have liked to glimpse some of them, but he kept focus throughout. He also didn’t execute the usual sequel mistake of showing the monsters too considerable, sticking to Boyle’s fresh jump-cut conception when the infected procure mask time (which is surprisingly exiguous, actually) ; you come by flashes, but with one monstrous exception towards the extinguish of the movie, we never rep the whole “let’s unveil the monster in all its glory” wankery so current in scare films with expansive effects budgets. (And even in the exception, he keeps it to a minimum and peaceful uses the close-ups that form the infected so scary in the first dwelling.) There were a few times I wished Garland had written the script, but Fresnadillo and his compatriots (who include the BAFTA-nominated Rowan Joffe) did well, for the most fragment.
The one truly ragged point in the movie is that it’s all site up very conveniently. You have a basic plan of what’s coming from the first broad space twist (or, if you’re more observant than I am, about ten minutes into the movie) . That said, Fresnadillo collected has a trick or two up his sleeve for the grand payoff at the ruin of the movie, and oh, the payoff is so very, very worth it. Everything’s status up nicely, and then Fresnadillo and co. sweep everything we deem we know off the table.
Now, I know there are a few people who aren’t going to like the sequel no matter what because it’s a sequel, but in general, if you liked the first one, I consider you’ll accept a kick out of this one, as well. Certainly worth paying matinée trace for, even if your matinée pricing unprejudiced skyrocketed like ours did. ****
When I heard that this was coming out, I was not expecting noteworthy. The fresh is arguably THE zombie classic (discounting the hysterical “Shaun of the Uninteresting”) of the last decade, but the sequel fervent almost none of the unique minds that brought us the stark scare of “28 Days Later”, which combined the threats of cataclysmic disease and it’s deadly effects on the mind which caused those infected by what became known as the “Rage Virus” to viciously and relentlessly attack the uninfected, either killing the victim or spreading the disease. A sequel had potential of course, but it seemed like it would be a by-the-books popcorn affair. Boy, was I execrable.
People complained that the first film started too slowly and was lifeless for the first twenty minutes; I disagree, but that drawl has been addressed nonetheless. The opening sequence flashes wait on to another group of survivors during the fresh outbreak. Their fate is one you won’t forget; it is startling, chaotic, hideous, dramatic, hopeless, and heartbreaking, all within one fairly short chain of events. That’s when I knew this one was going to be everything I wished it would be and it never let me down. This film is chronicle and personal, unsightly yet tearful, and manages to give you everything you want, even when you had no clue that you wanted it.
The evolution of the Rage Virus is a keen one in that it manages to outlive the death of all of the infected (from starvation) by exploiting a rare gene that allows some people to be carriers of the virus without succumbing to it’s effects. The result: even kissing your wife hello could be the catalyst for a fresh, deadly outbreak. The fable kicks in 28 weeks after the infection dies and the US military is overseeing the repopulation of London; or a district of London to be accurate. Every possible step is taken to ensure that the panic that was the infection that wiped Tall Britain’s population spruce off the earth is not repeated. Naturally, the virus finds a scheme. As the crushing mass of humanity flees from the compromised quarantine and the murderous zombies, there is an astounding scene where the rooftop snipers are frantically trying to distinguish the civilians from the infected as they urge down a bottlenecked street. The chaos and hopelessness of the location are palpable as the camera shows us through a soldier’s scope objective what he is up against in dramatic fashion. The map that these situations of large-scale human fright are turned into personal struggles is what makes this movie a stone frosty classic in my mind where it otherwise would have been honest another grand anxiety film.
The cinematography impresses as well. There are plenty more of those iconic shots of deserted London that bring assist memories of the first film and get me wish I lived there so I could indulge in them more. Another nice touch. And the final shot of the film, while not unexpected, is one that will chill you to the bone and thrill you at the same time.
I’ve spent famous time trying to believe of a apprehension sequel that surpassed the unusual so superbly and I honestly can’t mediate of one. The closest would be the current “Dawn of the Tiresome”, but I quiet remove “Night of the Living Stupid” to “Dawn” so “28 Weeks Later” takes it. This is an absolute take-no-prisoners, hard “R”, work of dismay that must be viewed by all professing to be fear fans.
