Unbelievable plot that insults the intelligence

Rating: 2/10 (2 February 2008)

I quite enjoyed the original 28 Days Later despite the problem with the premise. If the infected are uncontrollably violent why don't they attack each other? Who knows, but I was willing to suspend my disbelief and enjoy the ride. I was hoping for more of the same from the sequel, but unfortunately so many unbelievable things happen I found this impossible to view as anything but a farce.
*** Spoilers follow *** Robert Carlyle is holed up in a house with his wife and a few other survivors. Unfortunately the place they've chosen has paper thin walls the infected can punch through and they haven't fashioned or collected any weapons, and thus when a group of infected attack they're scr*wed. Robert is forced to abandon his wife and flee, and narrowly escapes.
Fast forward to 28 weeks later, and an American military force have recolonised part of London and are guarding British survivors. Most of the infected are dead from starvation (dehydration surely?), but are still considered a threat. Robert's kiddies arrive from abroad, but are upset they have no photo of their mummy, and so sneak out of the safe zone with the Americans in pursuit. Amazingly they find mummy is still alive, and a short time later they're all recaptured and returned to safety.
The Americans hose down the mother and tie her to a bench in their military complex. They suspect she's infected but for some reason hasn't gone psycho (she has different coloured eyes, a trait she shares with her son). They take a blood sample, and leave her unattended. Robert uses his caretaker pass card to sneak in, finds her, kisses her on the lips, becomes infected and starts killing people.
Realising they have a problem, the military decide to evacuate the British survivors from the safety of the skyscrapers and herd them all into a basement room with an unlocked and unguarded back door. The infected Robert enters and starts attacking them.
This was the point where I lost the ability to take any of it seriously. I simply can't believe any military force, American or otherwise, could be that moronic.
And so having lost containment the soldiers first shoot down civilians and infected alike, and then later napalm and nerve gas them. There's a humorous bit where the kids and another survivor escape the nerve gas hiding in an airtight abandoned car. And so as they flee the mayhem, Robert the 'super infected' pursues them across London and inexplicably keeps popping up to attack them. The son with the eyes is bitten but doesn't go nuts like his mother (what a surprise!). And it seems the infected have become more like traditional zombies in that they can still walk around with wounds that would kill any human. I won't 'spoil' this any further for you, but suffice it to say I was shouting at the TV in anger by the time it was over.
I think this was supposed to be some kind of comment on the American military and the Iraq situation. If so, it failed utterly. It's the film makers that come out looking like idiots.
I'd give this a 1, but the first ten minutes were OK and there were a few enjoyable gore sequences.
2/10