Just another example of a sequel losing any flare from the original.

Rating: 5/10 (8 January 2008)

Four years ago 28 Days Later delivered a much needed revolution to the zombie flick. It's use of hand-held cameras, rapidly caffeinated zombies and pure isolation created a sense of dread and terror that I hadn't felt in years. It was widely acclaimed and became one of the best horror films in decades for the sole reason that it was such a fresh relief from the serial killer-of-the-week cheap thrill rides that had been pumping out since the early '90s. The film became a welcome relief of originality in a genre that had quickly become stale. Of course in creating a sequel, it loses all of this freshness.
28 Weeks Later plays out as just another unneeded sequel to an already closed film. We see that everything is perfectly fine; London is quarantined and the virus is contained. Of course nothing can be that simple for long. The foolishness of children leads to a relapse of the virus in the American militarized zone and another outbreak is quickly on hand. As the zombies increase amazingly in numbers, the soldiers get orders to shoot everyone; infected or not. They need to contain any chance of the virus getting out, and the ultimate decision is to firebomb the entire district. In the midst of all this mayhem is a possible cure to the disease. A cure ironically found in the one person who introduced the infection back into the public after months of safety. This cure simply would've been unnecessary had it not been for the blind foolishness of children and inefficiency of a government that thinks they have control over everything. The desperate attempt at escape for the cure, living in the bodies of the two foolish children and led by an American soldier and an American military nurse, is the main plot of this seemingly insignificant story.
In turn the film ends up as an attempt at making some extra cash from the success of it's predecessor and fails miserably at trying to have any sort of unique quality. The camera-work from the first is thrown out the window, but a unique style of a faux-Greengrass/Mann cinematography pours the 'shaky-cam' on far too thick and does nothing but add nausea and confusion to what's happening on screen (the same exact thing that happened back in Sunshine, and just like Sunshine this film thrives on making the phrase 'style over substance' a gross understatement). This is a film that relies on the ambiance of fear and excitement that it attempts to create, but unfortunately it doesn't do a great job at that either. I will admit that it was entertaining for the most part and that the majority of the cast was excellent (particularly Rose Byrne and Imogen Poots) but the film just lost any kind of freshness that 28 Days had obtained therefore making it nothing more than another modern horror sequel that is completely pointless. The completely unbelievable ending (a soldier spends the entire film saying that he won't bring the kids on the helicopter, but then he lets them on without his buddy solider? Right.) that further provides the commentary of the foolishness of children, shows the virus spreading globally (in this case all the way to Paris) and practically insures another unnecessary, irrelevant sequel. Eventually we'll be able to see 28 Centuries Later. Zombies in space? I'm there.
I'd like to take time in this review to discuss my lovely sweetheart Rose Byrne. It really is coming to the point where she needs to get her role-choosing cap fitted, because this is becoming ridiculous. She is one of the most talented actresses I've ever seen and she constantly chooses these big mainstream pictures that range from terrible to barely above average, and her talent goes completely unnoticed. Big-budget features that put her in minuscule supporting roles while they pour and pour and pour the disgusting style that they try to create over the audiences head. It's revolting. She delivers one of the finest performances of all time in The Goddess of 1967 and since then it's been one big-budgeted stylized piece of tripe after the other (with the exceptions of The Dead Girl and Marie Antoinette). Ms. Byrne always delivers a knockout performance, even in something like Sunshine, but her brilliant work falls into the abyss unless you're precisely looking for it do to the disgusting need for stylistic attention these self-obsessed directors have.