Excellent zombie film - spoilers abound below

Rating: 9/10 (9 May 2007)

FINAL WARNING: SPOILERS GALORE! I am actually giving this a wicked high rating because I think it is one of the best zombie movies I have ever seen. The rage virus is so potent and spreads so quickly that coupled with the outright violence we're subject to at the beginning of the movie we have the creepiest premise since the original Night of the Living Dead, I think.
28 Days Later was very good, but after a fashion I think that "Weeks" did more with the basic premise. One of my chief complaints with "Days" was that the Infected are hardly in the movie, and didn't seem as much of a threat. Jim gets chased by some who we only see from a distance, Tom kills two, one pops its head up to the cab window in the tunnel, the ones shot down outside the house are at a distance, and the scene where Jones gets loose was scary, but not the same as hordes of the Infected running at you.
I wish that fewer hand-held cameras were used during the attack scenes in "Weeks," but you got the idea.
I didn't care for the ending too much, as it felt a little obvious, but I also think that the idea of the Infected making it to the mainland is also so quintessential a question that I like the idea of forcing the next film, if there is one, to pick it up. Would humanity be able to get their collective act together to deal with the threat, a la World War Z, or would it be all over with, a la Romero? I like the idea of setting up Robert Carlysle's anger at leaving his wife as a pretense to why he is so particularly angry and wanting to kill his kids. I can almost accept that he follows them throughout the film. The suggestion that the rage virus doesn't make you 100% of an automaton is interesting.
The political undertones of the film are heavy. The Americans got the clean-up job - and they screwed it up royal. Certain questions come to mind that other reviewers have pointed out as criticisms and plot holes, but which I find myself considering have been placed there very specifically. Why are the Americans repatriating anyone before the clean-up is finished? Wouldn't a thorough search have prevented another outbreak? The line "We are responsible for your safety..." is so potent a reminder later on when all heck breaks loose.
All in all, I will go to sleep kind of scared tonight, as the Infected and the infection are completely terrifying when you are actually watching an outbreak. The final frames of the film therefore set up a truly incomprehensibly-terrifying premise, and it makes me want to see more.
I hope it happens. 28 Months Later could be an interesting film, if they turn it around quickly enough.