A solid, complete zombie film.

Rating: 9/10 (11 May 2007)

I must immediately stress that critics who made the interpretation that this was a statement on the Iraq War seem to know as little about it as they do allegory. I'll write more on this later.
To put it succinctly, this movie has all that modern zombie movies are supposed to have. Incredible gore? Check. Virus zombies? Check. Biting zombies? Check. Soldiers shooting zombies? Check. A horror plot that has people falling to their own weaknesses? Check.
The shocks are there, the plot is excellent, and the acting is very, very good. My only issue with the movie, actually, was its use of some recognizable actors- casting semi-unknowns makes the movie more visceral, instead of having fans think, 'Oh, I saw that guy in...'.
Thankfully, fans of the first movie will notice that it doesn't try to ret-con anything, and the same action-focused, grainy camera work makes a welcome return. The movie moves along at a nice pace, never leaving you room to get bored.
Carina Chocano in the Los Angeles Times commented, "The director's message is less overtly political than it is allegorical -- that chaos breeds chaos and that force only serves to amplify it." Given that from the very first moment, without getting too specific, people abandoning their duties defines the movie (as it does virtually all zombie films), I would have to completely disagree. I even set upon another viewing of this movie simply for the purpose of finding an Iraq metaphor- and it's not really there; at this point, they would find a war metaphor in Disney's 'Dumbo'. Unfortunately, I'd have to say that this time, the critics are pretentiously political; so don't worry about getting preached to, as I did. If you're looking for military/force/war metaphors, look to the first film, 28 Days Later. If you're looking for an excellent, fun, gore-infested romp, watch this right afterwards.