Only one good scene in the whole entire movie: the very first one!

Rating: 2/10 (18 February 2008)

28 Weeks Later has only one good scene in the whole entire movie: the very first one! In the first scene, you see a calm situation quickly descend into madness with infected zombies suddenly turning up and causing chaos. This scene is very suspenseful, scary, intense and brilliantly shot. Unfortunately, it is the only scene in the whole movie that has any of those qualities. Everything to come after this opening scene is abysmally stale, boring, not scary, and uninteresting.
I have been told that the opening scene was done by the Director of the original movie (28 Days Later), and the rest of the movie was done by the Director of the movie this review is about (28 Weeks Later). I have not verified this information to be correct or not, but the *vast* difference of quality between the opening scene and the whole rest of the movie certainly does bear out the correctness of that statement. The opening scene and the rest of the movie are like two entirely separate movies; one great (the opening scene) and one terrible (the whole rest of the movie).
After the opening scene of 28 Weeks Later, it is no longer a zombie movie. Instead, it instantly *devolves* into a movie about two clichéd, dopey, very annoying children and their quest to escape being murdered by the US Military; which has been ordered to kill all humans in the country because they are mixed together with infected zombies. If you were expecting a zombie movie from 28 Weeks Later, you have been misled. 28 Weeks Later is *not* a zombie movie. It's a "Watch dopey kids try to escape being hunted down by the US military" movie. Zombies in 28 Weeks Later are a complete afterthought. Aside from the opening scene, they might as well not have bothered to have any zombies in the movie at all, since the movie devolves to a point where it has nothing whatsoever to do with zombies.
This movie seems to be a nothing more than a ham-fisted attempt to paint the US Military as bloodthirsty monsters who murder civilians indiscriminately. That idea may or may not have legitimate roots in real-life. But a movie that is *supposed* to be a zombie movie is not a suitable venue to be exploring that idea. If a Director wants to make a movie that is a soapbox for promoting a point of view that "The US Military is evil", that is fine. But he *shouldn't* try to be cagey about it, and pretend that his "zombie movie" about that is *actually* a zombie movie. That is what 28 Weeks Later does. 28 Weeks Later *masquerades* itself as a zombie movie, but it's more akin to a skewed documentary pushing an anti-US Military agenda, like Farenheit 9/11.
Therefore, it should not have been masqueraded as a zombie movie, or had the "28" brand attached to it's title. The Director should have been honest about what he was making and not have tried to mislead consumers into watching a zombie movie, then once they've paid to see it, really they don't get a zombie movie. They just get to be subjected to his agenda to push a political message.
Best way to watch 28 Weeks Later: watch the opening scene, then turn it off. Once the man has escaped on a boat, you know all the good parts of the movie are done with. Press STOP right then, you've seen *everything* worthwhile in this movie by that point.
2/10 for the opening scene alone. Had the entire movie maintained the quality of the opening scene, this *would* have been a 10/10.