Awful rehash of the first film.

Rating: 1/10 (13 May 2007)

28 Weeks Later is everything we fear about sequels, it's pretty much the same film done with a bigger budget and different actors. I hated the original since it had a decent concept but strayed off into some ludicrous tangent about bad soldiers and lost any real survivalist story or focus.
The sequel has mainland Britain (one country apparently, not 3) repopulated with an indefinite amount of civilians under the guide of the US Military (why so, is never explained). Survivalist Robert Carlyle (an underused and brilliant actor) meets his kids, creepily androgynous son and whining daughter, as they come back from mainland Europe and introduces them to the new, empty London. But, being a simple-minded movie with no other goal other than that of killing people and offering gory deaths, this stability obviously doesn't last long and soon enough the Rage virus comes back.
So, as you've probably seen a million times before, the authority are incompetent, the lesser characters are stupid and jeopardise everyone by nothing thinking clearly or using common sense and everyone we are introduced to is obviously just there to eventually be killed, unceremoniously and flippantly.
Several plot strings are set up, but all of them meet quick dead ends (pun intended) and, like before, the film just goes in a random direction with no clear objective or way out. None of the characters are likable, so why should we care about them? And the token kid is a poor actor with a very annoying boy band hairdo.
The overwhelming pessimism and apathy through-out 28 Weeks Later is so alienating and shallow. We've seen a hundred movies that make the point of cheapening human life in the past few years (especially since the start of the conflict in Iraq) that it's becoming quite distasteful. Do we really need any more of these societal commentaries in horror films? Is it relevant anymore? I don't believe it is. 28 Weeks Later just seems to be jumping on the bandwagon of opportunity regarding this and as an exploitation sequel to a puzzlingly over-praised cult hit.
The problem doesn't just lie with the non-existent plot. The film is so horribly over-cut and under-lit you cannot really make anything out. And please don't defend this claiming it to resemble the panic on screen. Films simulated (and stimulated) panic long before this kind of editing became commonplace. It also features an obnoxiously loud sound design to compensate for the fact that film just isn't visually or kinetically engaging.
I wasn't impressed and I was so wishing for this film to be something special. It's boring, forgetful and has nothing new to say despite how loudly it tries to scream. Save your cash and time for something else.
And they're NOT zombies.