A Surprisingly Good Sequel.

Rating: 7/10 (20 July 2009)

28 Days Later was a suspenseful, atmospheric and thrilling addition to the 'zombie' genre. At least until the third act, when the film loses it's direction and ultimately failed to reinvest interest. I put zombie in quotes because any fan of the film will tell you they are not zombies, just infected people with a virus. When I heard that a sequel was coming out, I figured it would be even worse because a sequel being better than the original is rare, specifically in this generation of film-making.
28 Weeks Later furthers the story, this time with new characters. The virus is gone and re-population has begun. The American army is in charge and have everything under control. That would seem like a boring movie, so of course they have to have the virus come back and wreck havoc. Which it does. In a very lame way I might add.
The film opens with an attack on a house, this is the highlight of the film. The film never reaches the same height of excitement as this, but it does keep the viewer interested. I was never bored and found that it did work well as a sequel. It doesn't have the same feel as the first. All the atmosphere that made the original good is gone here. I felt more threatened by the infected in the first because it was them against ordinary people. Here, we have guns, helicopters and apparently tons of napalm.
In one scene the soldiers bomb half the city, it looks cool, but seems ineffective, they later use gas that seems to kill everyone in sight. My question is why not use this gas first, it sure as hell beats out blowing up half the city. Small things like this are all over this film. Lead a bunch of civilians into one room for 'protection'. Of course this is one room in which the infected gain access, other people are left unguarded and creatures run around unnoticed in this government building. These things aside, the film is really well done and very enjoyable. It serves the genre well and is ultimately more enjoyable then the first.
Boyle acts as producer this time around, so the feel of the film is not all that different and the film does offer some intense moments. There is one sequence in which our characters go underground to the subway system. It's totally dark and one uses night vision from a rifle to see. They filmmakers use this to show us exactly what she sees, in a first person type of way. Very effective and scary.
The gore has been turned up a notch, with more blood splatter and a severe beating of one person that may turn some stomachs. There is another scene in which they use the blades from the helicopter to make quite a mess.
This is an entertaining sequel that manages to actually be better, albeit not by much, to the original. It adds new elements, but doesn't necessarily take the story into new directions. It is better than one would expect.