I am torn

Rating: 6/10 (3 January 2008)

28 days was surprisingly good.
This one wasn't bad....BUT...
In the shadow of fine films such as Blues Brothers 2000 and Terminator 2, this sequel was needlessly oriented on kids. I can handle a story about a MAN who has to transport a kid (Children of Men), but this went a little too far paying attention to the kids. Unless it is oriented at kids, the children should be nothing more than a wiggling package to be dealt with in an action movie. Child/Teen mischief should not be a plot device (and it is in this one).
I didn't expect a great storyline and I didn't really get it, the movie is about constant frenetic escapes from the flesh-eating zombies as well as some escapes from an overzealous military thrown in to boot.
Somehow though, I still did enjoy it. They aren't afraid to kill off important characters and they do play with your expectations as a moviegoer. There are a couple of scenes where you are expecting shocks and they just laugh in your face. Also note the presence of a "Dead Meat" character. You halfway expect a particular monster to have a hesitation due to emotion while he is attacking certain victims. The movie makers almost use the typical tricks of a horror movie as red herrings to mislead you about where the plot is going to go.
Other things to look out for: multiple shots surreptitiously highlighting the chests of the leading ladies. humor is present, but at a different level than the obvious. you have to laugh at yourself and at the way they made the movie. I actually liked the slightly-sped-up effect, I felt it belonged here because it enhanced the way that an attack from a zombie would feel: quick, dirty, and to the point. a theme is that anyone with emotion tends to regret it, while the "by the book" military or the one-track-minded zombies survive and thrive. As soon as anyone stops having a rational reason for doing something and is working strictly from an emotion, then things go horribly wrong. The CG wasn't great, it was okay. Fire and smoke were a little unbelievable. I did enjoy seeing parts of London decimated. The movie does stand on its own, with or without the first one. A very "safe" sepia (filtered lens) scene at the beginning showing an attempt to return to normalcy followed by a gory bloody color as the attacks start. Tight hallways, scary medical facilities, tube tunnels. The swarmlike convergence of the infected zombies in multiple scenes.
All in all, I did really enjoy it and will be thinking about it long after the curtain has fallen, but found the "children" distracting. the thematic rising pitch detuned guitar motif.