Not so much a sequel, but more of a fan-fiction-satisfyer-thingymajig

Rating: 8/10 (13 May 2007)

28 Days Later's eerie quietness and artistic license have not made it into 28 weeks later - maybe they were busy making other films? That's not to say that 28 weeks later didn't scare me at times.
The idea of the film was wonderful. Britain is given clear status and an efficient repopulation programme goes underway. The survivors are taken to the Canary Wharf area, guarded by a lot of American firepower that disappears at some point. The survivors are checked for illness and re-housed. The Americans musn't know that the virus started from a banana-starved chimpy, they think it only infects humans.
Two teenage girls (sorry, the boy looked like a girl and the whole cinema agreed) go to their old house, outside of the safe zone. There they discover their mother hiding. She was bitten by the infected but only carries the disease. The idiot military decides it's a sterling idea to take her into the middle of the green zone, and to not guard her. Her surviving husband, finds her and kisses her.
He becomes infected, and overcomes some slow-witted soldiers. Of course in that situation when you saw an infected man running towards you, you wouldn't shoot him, but you'd get in for a closer look.
The Americans lock all the British in a car park, complete with a stunningly strong front door, and a kitchen door at the back. The infected man runs in through the weak, unguarded door, and jumps on top of his daught....son. His son is somehow unhurt and runs.
The British are running for their lives and becoming infected. Since it is night-time the Americans decide that it'd be a lovely idea to turn off the lights, just so everyone can see what they're doing with no problems. A warm-hearted soldier then agrees to help some uninfected escape, and leads them out of the green zone before it is firebombed.
This is where you see the US command forces watching the explosion, but not dying. You never see anything of them after that. God only knows why.
So, now we're left with an American sniper, a scientist who is determined to save the two girls...yes, I know, because they are somehow only carrying the virus, and a couple of token characters to make it look more believable.
The American soldier and scientist come to quick and sticky ends. You'd think that they make it to the end - one minute they're strong, and the next minute they're dead.
Running from the American firepower, the girls end up in the London Underground Station where that nice man in the film Creep lives. What with it being pitch black and smelly because of corpses and all, they decide that it would be grand to go down to platform level. The infected have already had that idea though, you see them running for the tube long before this. They have common sense, you see, to take the tube and use their oyster cards - it helps you catch up with the uninfected so much faster, provided you don't have to change trains.
The kids are on the platform, after stepping on a mound of bodies on the escalators. The younger kid is then confronted by 'its' father, who managed to get all the way from Canary Wharf to Charing Cross by himself! It then comes to the elder daughter to shoot her dear old dad, and the two make it to Wembley Stadium, where a commander had agreed to meet his late friend in his helicopter.
The two girls arrive there alone and the seemingly one-remaining soldier flies them to Paris, despite their bloodshot eyes etc etc etc.
In my mind this leaves Britain safe, and continental Europe, Asia and Africa doomed. We see brief shots of infected French people racing through the Metro stations towards the Eiffel Tower, and the story stops, at least for another five years until they decide to make 28 months later, or 28 years later or something like that.
SPOILER ENDS The film was well made, and gave the fans what they wanted to know about the infected. The London Underground scene terrified me - that somebody was stupid enough to go down there in the first place. Clever scenes included Trafalgar Square, with weeds growing out of the fountains and the grass in parks being too long - since 28 days later happened just after outbreak, that wasn't an issue. London really did look like it had been deserted for half a year! It would be interesting to see the next film, where everywhere from Paris to Shanghai, Oslo to Cape Town, Moscow to Kuwait City was infected - although North Korea would probably be safe, what with not letting anyone in and all. It would leave Australia, Japan, all-important Sri-Lanka, and the Americas uninfected. Tuvalu will have sunk by then. Sorry.
The atmosphere wasn't the same as the first film. It felt completely removed from Jim and Selena - it would have been so good to see them being rescued and interviewed and all. Reading a preview review, I believed there was a scene in the Channel of people racing to Europe to survive but being shot down - that wasn't in the film.
If you're going to see it, get there 20 minutes before the film starts because the cinemas are packed at the moment. We had to sit at the back right on the side so the speakers were right in our ears. If you're going to buy a hot dog or something, get it eaten within a couple of minutes - I happened to scare the lady next to me when she saw ketchup on my face.
That's about it.