Fast cut shots and a homicidal helicopter...

Rating: 4/10 (18 November 2016)

Ah man, I remember when 28 Days Later came out...I wasn't old enough to see it, but I saw some clips of the opening sequence and I loved the abandoned London feel.
Needless to say, when I saw it it was...and still is...an incredibly good film.
So I came to check out 28 weeks later.
Basically the 'rage' virus has apparently died out and so people start to live in London again, which seems to have been taken over by the Americans.
Two kids are reunited with their father (Robert Carlyle) and all is happy in the rebuilt world for a day or so.
The kids proceed to sneak out and go to their old house, and in the panic that ensues, the zombie plague rises again. But there's something special about these two kids...and everyone around them is very keen to keep them alive.
First of all I loved the scenery in this - the landscape shots are brilliant, and it has this dark - quintessentially British - feel to it, the kind of channel 4 movie feel. Which works well and ramps up the creeping feel of dread at times.
It also has a lot of frantic shots - e.g scenes in very claustrophobic areas that are cut very quickly to build tension. A lot of the time this works, but as a viewer I like to know what's going on and this style of film-making took that away from me at times.
Was good to see Imogen Pootz in this, her career has since gone up and up - Carlyle is good value too, although doesn't get much screen time.
The opening quarter of the film is good, but sadly it fell apart from there - I didn't feel that involved in the two main children characters, and wasn't really rooting for them and I found the ending really disappointing. As I saw the final few shots I had to roll my eyes.
Call me cynical but if you liked the first one, don't bother. The zombies are the same - and yes, they are scary - violent, mindless fountains of speed and rage that you feel hopeless against - but other than that you're better off visiting the original again or going to see some classic Romero flicks.