misses Robert Carlyle in the second half

Rating: 6/10 (13 September 2014)

It's 28 weeks after the release of the virus and about 6 months after the first movie. The US Army is occupying London after the zombies have all supposedly died of starvation. Don (Robert Carlyle) narrowly escaped the zombies by abandoning his wife Alice (Catherine McCormack) and others. Doyle (Jeremy Renner) and Flynn (Harold Perrineau) are a couple of the military personnel under the command of General Stone (Idris Elba). Scarlet (Rose Byrne) is an Army doctor. Tammy (Imogen Poots) and Andy (Mackintosh Muggleton) are Don's kids who return from Spain after missing the initial outbreak. The kids escape the zone to find their semi-zombified mother at home. She's infected but isn't turning.
The first one has a simple powerful originality. The originality could never be repeated. I do like Don's duplicity and personal demons from his escape. I wish the movie stayed with him as he struggles with his inner demons and possibly finds redemption. The bigger ideas are lost when he turns. It becomes a simple zombie action movie. I just miss Robert Carlyle as the main character in the second half. When time is invested in him being the main survivor character, the movie needs to follow his story. The action is bigger and more confused. It loses the cleanliness of the original horror. The simplicity of the original lends itself to be a great horror. There is probably a political statement being made about American occupation but it doesn't really dig that deep.