Not a patch on the original

Rating: 5/10 (20 August 2006)

I rented this film after having seen a preview of the first ten minutes when it came out in 2004 (something Channel 4 were doing at the time). Having seen this preview I was expecting an atmospheric and chilling film, I should have stopped it after ten minutes. There are many things wrong with this film without even comparing it to the original, firstly is the 'slick' new metal/ Jonny Cash soundtrack which merely cheapens any of the atmosphere promised by the prologue - 28 Days Later wins hands down on this front. Secondly the characters are too many in number and too transparent to care about, in the original one had a sense of empathy for the characters. Thirdly the film was not scary in the slightest or indeed tense, the zombies in the original were within touching distance of the characters not 'safely' contained outside only to become a problem when one of the idiot characters goes on a suicide mission to rescue a dog. Finally this film has nothing of the sub-textual relevance of Romero's original which made a satirical swipe at consumer culture and made one question who was worse, the zombies or the humans. Overall a big, big disappointment except for the zombie baby which actually made me laugh - so bonus points for comic entertainment I guess.