Not A Zombie Film, But What 28 Months Later Could Have Looked Like...

Rating: 8/10 (7 July 2013)

This was not a Zombie movie, plan and simple. If Danny Boyle and the Fox Atomic folks ever got their act together, then we'd have perhaps what was illustrated here, but far more superior than this weak presentation.
There were some things about the film that I liked, but there were a lot of missing elements that would have made it much better. For starters I think they could have used a much better director for this project than Marc Forster (who's only noticeable film was a very forgettable yarn called "Monsters Ball").
Forster has never even seen, much less know what a zombie/pandemic film should look like. This showed in how the zombies became more and more less threatening, and more comical looking as film went on. Max Brooks wrote a masterful piece in the original novel, but this film was less- than faithful to the source material.
The characters were very transparent to almost lifeless in the film. Yes, things got off to a relatively quick start, but there was no character development to speak of. As far as this being a WAR, that lacked considerable punch as well. More attack scenes, and just a "little" gore would not have hurt. Most of the action seen in this film was in the trailer.
Now we know, that whenever we see a so-called zombie film with a PG-13 rating, movie-goer beware. Nonetheless, I did find the film somewhat entertaining, but I still left the theater with a feeling that something was indeed missing.
We never found out where the pandemic originated, or what it really was. The pandemic spread to quickly almost to the point that the film immediately fell into a chaotic frenzy. If something was to spread that fast, we could have at least got the benefit of knowing where it started like in 28 days later. This made the film look even more unrealistic.
To wrap this up in a nutshell, what I saw was a film that suffered from a lack-luster director who had no vision or concept of what a zombie/apocalyptic film should look, or feel like.
Max Brooks should give his money back, remove his name from this film, and reboot the project keeping the cast, but getting another director, perhaps Danny Boyle. This film will have a very brief stint in the theaters, so wait-for-it on video or cable.
Blu-Ray "unrated" edition is much more intense with 7 additional minutes of footage.