Insults the original...

Rating: 5/10 (16 May 2007)

I'll try and be unbiased seeing as I wasn't caught up in the original hype of the first movie. However I do respect the ability of the producers of 28 days later to bind together a very low budget film that created almost cult status. So you can understand why 28 weeks later was highly anticipated among its dedicated followers.
First off, I could never understand why the first was so popular, under normal circumstances I felt the story was empty, and the characters bland. But for some reason you could interact with the emotions, the scenery and the behaviour. A large amount of the first film was pararamic views of the empty English towns and countryside, a shocking look into your back garden in a disturbing parallel universe playing out in front of you. All these things together meant it differed itself from your dawn of the dead, and resident evil's etc.
So how did the second go so wrong? Well, it all went wrong when they decided to give this film a budget they didn't need and actors too big for the role. I found the film getting more and more cringe worthy as the story stretched beyond the reality the first had created. The fact is when this film finished I was more interested in debating the similarities of 28 weeks later and resident evil two, which was the same film in a different location, and unfortunately as far mindless zombie frag fests go, resident evil 2 was a far superior film, which as it goes is not saying a lot for 28WL.
Without giving too much away. Producers have introduced the Americans (big sigh) into series in an attempt to re-colonise a small porton of London. Unfortunately as you can imagine there is an outbreak which is caused by a predictable carrier/host ploy, unfortunately the lack of judgment on the Americans causes outright chaos  least its realistic in some aspect. At times the mixed scenes went from a blend of frustrating blair witch project to all out action black hawk down, which was never going to work. That with the overly inflated action sequences seriously re-wrote to rules on reality, which was one of the biggest aspects, and an integral part of the first film. And if you tilted your head sideways and squinted it could be a political statement against the current occupation of Iraq and their failure to control the environment. The end is open to a third film, but I doubt any producer could put this movie back on track.
Overall I found the film lacking, the exaggerated Hollywood action sequences distracting from the point of the first movie. If you've got a night in with the lads you've got your guns and your fit bird. But as a sequel to a cult status British film it fails on ALL levels.
5/10 - mainly because its better than watching repeats of the Simpson's - just.