Equal Parts Entertaining and Annoying

Rating: 7/10 (30 May 2007)

Despite some of its glaring flaws, I actually liked 28 Weeks Later better than 28 Days Later. The movie starts off with some survivors hiding out in a cottage in the English countryside who get attacked by the "Rage" infected zombies when they reluctantly let in a kid on the run. This act will prove to be something of a foreshadowing of things to come. Also, "rage" for the uninitiated,is the name of the man-made virus that turns people into red-eyed blood-crazed homicidal maniacs within seconds after exposure to infected blood or saliva entering the mouth, bloodstream, or the eyes. It's like rabiezilla if you will. Only one person survives and makes his way to safety via motorboat. The movie fast forwards ahead 28 Weeks Later (hence the title) and the English citizens under the watch of NATO deployed US troops are being brought back in to live in heavily guarded safety zones as the troops continue to eradicate any possible remaining infected since many of them have died off from starvation. Trouble erupts when Don's (the supposed sole survivor of the cottage attack) children Tammy a teen and her whiny bitchboy of a brother Andy sneak out to go pick up some items of sentimental value from their old home outside the safety zone and they happen across their mom! It turns out she also survived and their dad had failed to mention that he had left her to die to save his own ass. It turns out that his wife is infected but she's immune...she's a carrier and so when Don sneaks in to visit her and beg for her forgiveness for being a coward, he kisses her and the whole horrible thing begins all over again! He becomes infected with rage and gets the snowball rolling into a huge avalanche. So far, the movie is off to a nice start, but there were some things plot-wise and film wise that got on my nerves. For starters, as the numbers of infected continue to grow, the protocol for containment becomes simply kill everyone. Okay, that's understandable but Don's kids may have their mother's immunity to the virus which could be used for a cure and this information NEVER gets passed up the chain of command! NEVER! The kids are being protected by an army biologist and a sniper who are also being targeted y'know, just to play it safe, but the whole time I was watching these events unfold, I was thinking to myself "shouldn't one of these numb-skulls get on a walkie talkie and tell the army of their potentially precious cargo? Surely if there's a chance of a cure, the military would hold their fire and provide an airlift to safety for these kids!" That struck me as stupid and the result was a pointlessly bleak ending, in essence an exercise in nihilism that didn't have to be. Dumb decisions were made and nothing gets accomplished. This movie could have still applied good ol' common sense and still have been good. By the way , by the time the movie's over, you'll want to kill Tammy and Andy your damn self. Especially Andy! Another thing that worked my last nerve was the f--king camera work! There was so much jostle cam in the movie during zombie attacks, that it became a total distraction. Normally, I like zombie movies and this one didn't hold back on the gore like ...Days, but I was starting to dread the zombie scenes because oh god, no! Not another jostle-cam sequence! Some other titles they should have considered are "The Whiny Brit-Brats That Destroyed the F--king World" or "Attack of the Overcaffeinated Cameramen".