An injection of Hollywood isn't all that bad

Rating: 7/10 (14 November 2007)

Upon hearing that a sequel to the brilliant 28 Days Later was being made, I was unsure. When I read the plot, I felt like totally dismissing the film. "Oh great, Americans save the day again!" was my initially response, as I felt irritated at the idea of Amercians muscling in on an effective and quality British horror.
I finally saw the product last night, and breathed a sigh of relief as my earlier doubts turned out to be a little off target. Okay, the sequel is much bigger budget with extensive special effects and a much wider focus. The low budget, grainy Indy feel of the first one is not so strong here, as the small scale setting of the first one has blown into a city wide, high octane military deal with skyscrapers, helicopters and all matter of weaponry. This film has many more people involved on a much bigger scale. You could call the whole thing an 'injection of Hollywood', but trust me, it could've gone a lot worse than people here are whining about. The energy of the 28 Days is still here, the shaky camera-work during combat scenes, the frenzied feel when the infected attack, the tension and the moments of emotion between survivors.
In 28 Weeks Later, a section of London near the millennium dome has been wardened off by the military, in which society tries to rebuild itself after the infected have slowly died off. It is a complex of tall sophisticated blocks, high tech systems, and plenty of well armed troops around the campus. Robert Carlyle (Trainspotting) takes one of the lead roles as a family man who is reunited with his kids early on in the film. It is soon discovered that his wife is not quite like everyone else, a medical phenomenon, but at the same time very dangerous to be around. Without giving too much away, an internal outbreak is triggered, and lets just say the film gets VERY messy from here on in. If you thought the first one was gory, then strap yourselves in, as this goes off the scale with blood'n'guts. This could compete with "Land of the Dead" for gore, albeit this is gore you can take seriously.
Brilliant but never OTT special effects make the combat scenes gruesomely entertaining, camera-work is worthy, as is the tension as various survivors struggle to stay alive in what becomes a free for all area of carnage and mayhem. I thinks fans of the first one disappointed with this should be grateful it wasn't turned into something like Resident Evil:Apocalypse, which would've been just a little insulting.
I think it would've angered people a lot less if the military force sent in to control and monitor the situation were simply UN, instead of having to be solely American. Apart from that the film kept up and gets 7 stars.