A satisfying sequel

Rating: 7/10 (18 August 2010)

Danny Boyle's 28 Day Later came as an adrenaline rush to a flagging zombie corpse. Although technically and well argued not to be zombies the rage fuelled "infected" were as good as that.
Due to the success of that film it was no surprise it was given a sequel. Boyle, unable to direct due to filming Sunshine, passed the directing duties to Juan Carlos Fresnadillo who does well in capturing London in similar lights that his predecessor managed.
The film itself is perhaps best summed up as a selection of interesting scenes spread out over a conventional and in some ways unsurprising narrative.
The opening scene serves to remind you of the brutality of the choices people have to make in order to survive a UK of infected. It also is a precursor for a later key scene when the US military, in control of a safe zone weeks after the events of the first scene, lose control and flee for their own survival.
A US sniper then becomes the hero that the father was unable to be.
The obvious subtext of United States intervention and subsequent loss of control is not subtle but does add some depth to an otherwise straight forward movie, which becomes little more than a chase sequence in its second half.
Perhaps credit must go to the new director for creating a film that in terms of excitement does in many ways surpass the original if only losing out to it in terms of originality.