Disappointing Sequel

Rating: 6/10 (11 November 2007)

Danny Boyle's 2002 film "28 Days Later" was a startling and terrifying piece of work, combining interesting characters with a chilling situation and amazing photography, and taking care to provide something at least slightly upbeat for the audience to take home at the end. In other words, what it did, it did well.
"28 Weeks Later" is not the worst sequel I've ever seen, but it is something of a disappointment. To begin with the good, it does inherit some of the strong points of the first film as an interesting cast turns in good performances to give us some pretty scary moments.
Unfortunately, it just does not know where to stop. The plentiful, but rarely excessive, gore of the first film turns into seemingly unstoppable fountains of the stuff here. A charming scene near the end where a helicopter is used to slice a group of "infected" to pieces is particularly nauseating. Meanwhile, characters we like are shown dying horrible deaths to no good purpose, and the ending is a real downer. To add to the fun, half the dialog seems to consist of words beginning with "F". Perhaps no surprise, given the material, but at times the expletives really do seem to be just padding. The memorable soundtrack of the first film is nowhere to be found here.
So, I neither recommend this film, nor advise against going to see it. But if you do go, keep your expectations in check.
Rating: 6/10.