Gore Mongral's Rage Review: 28 Weeks Later

Rating: 7/10 (12 May 2007)

Back to Britain we go for the sequel to 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later. "Weeks" tells the tale of the aftermath of the first cases of the Rage Virus and then shows us what happens when a successful clean up operation goes horribly FUBAR.
Basically we get a telling of some events from another family that occurred during the time frame of the original and how one of the said family members is left for dead only to later be found alive. The catch is this member is not infected in the way the others were however she does become a "carrier" of the virus. Starting from a simple kiss we have an outbreak all over again.
This movie is scripted well (except for what is mentioned below), and there is enough character development to move the story along and there are some decent kills and gore but there are two things that keeps this from being a knockout punch. One the camera work, the same thing that plagues the original is back again rearing its ugly head. I like to call it Rage Cam. It seems whenever there is an action sequence the camera also gets infected with the Rage Virus and starts to spaz out so much that you can bearly make out what is going on. I don't know if when it comes to DVD if viewing it at home will make a difference or not as in the case of movies like Batman Begins but at the theater it is a definite detractor.
The other is some of the coincidental happenings that occur in the movie and the rather dumbed down ways that the script decides to throw the audience bones as to what is going to happen. The whole dual colored eye sequence with the boy and him saying that he got that trait from his mother and the infected father always seeming to be in the right place at the right time to jump out and attack them. You would have to see the movie to totally understand but it dumbs down the movie slightly as oppose to having some surprises we pretty much are force feed what is coming next.
In the end though this is a solid film and well worth a look. I really like how the "28" Films keep the tone very serious throughout and never reduce themselves to crappy imitators to horror by having to have a token comedic character to "lighten the mood". Thank God for this movie as this year has been a roller coaster for the horror genre, from the superb throwback B movie Planet Terror (part of the Grindhouse double feature) to the God awful Hills Have Eyes 2, this film fits firmly in there as a solid entry into the horror genre and maybe even upon DVD the hyper camera sequences may look a lot more clearer and bring the grade for this one up.
A solid movie that gets a solid score of: 7/10 Good. If only for a few "dumbed down" moments in the film and the Rage Cam issues this may have even scored higher. Regardless as it is it is a solid movie that if you can look past those issues you'll find more than a few things to entertain you.