Movies / Movie Reviews

28 Weeks Later

By Geoff Hoppe
May 12, 2007 - 22:20

I hate to say “I told you so,” but…oh, who am I kidding. I love saying “I told you so.” It makes me feel smart.

 

When I saw the trailer for 28 Weeks Later two months ago, I knew what to expect: a stupid, boring rehash of 28 Days Later that failed to live up to its predecessor. I was right. 28 Weeks Later is everything 28 Days Later wasn’t. It’s dull, poorly acted, and has plot holes an Overeaters Anonymous bus could drive through.

 

28 Weeks Later is, obviously, a sequel to 28 Days Later. Britain has been overrun by the disease, the infected have died of starvation, and now an American-led NATO force has arrived in England to reestablish order. Everything’s hunky-dory until an infected survivor is discovered, who (of course) reintroduces the disease to the population. Hell breaks loose and nutty hijinx ensue.

 

Yes, that is Link from Matrix Reloaded.

Here’s the kicker: the disease is unleashed when an apartment superintendent uses his low-level security clearance to access the military biohazard lab where the infected woman is being kept. P.S., the extremely important laboratory has no surveillance cameras in it. This is plot hole #1, kids—since when does the American military give its janitors a clearance that allows them to tamper with hazardous material? Do the garbagemen in the Pentagon dust the plutonium rods? If I get a job doing laundry at NORAD, will I be given a key to the nukes? Cause if so, sign me up.

 

The original 28 Days Later was amazing. It redefined what a zombie movie could be. In the same way Bruce Lee lifted kung fu movies out of the b-level basement with Enter the Dragon, Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later picked the zombie movie up by its lapels, dusted it off, and taught it how to compete with a-list films. 28 Days had action, brains, artistry, and gutsy direction (no pun intended) that made the movie as fun as it was smart. It also had Cillian Murphy, Brendan Gleeson and Naomie Harris, who made the post-apocalyptic setting believable. Most of all, it was satisfying. You wanted the characters to win, and they did.

 

Guys, it's called red eye filter. Use it.

28 Weeks Later has…well…um…a louder soundtrack. That’s about it. The zombie clichés that 28 Days Later avoided are all in 28 Weeks Later, such as visual monotony. Director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo adores the “shakycam” technique almost as much as he loves strobe lights. He loves both so much that he’s going to make you watch them for 75% of his friggin’ movie. Juan Carlos Fresnadillo has two distinct visual styles: annoying (the strobe-lit “shakycam”) and lifeless (the 25% of the movie not shot in ADHD-vision).

 

Worst of all, and most cliché, this movie’s a chore. No matter how much you like zombie films, you have to admit that even the best ones still have slow spots. The worst zombie movies are nothing but slow spots. 28 Weeks Later is a chore to sit through. I had to force myself to remain in the theater.

 

Insert Elian Gonzalez joke here.

Cast composition is another of this sequel’s mistakes. 28 Days Later had a sympathetic protagonist, a hardened survivor as the female lead, and a father-daughter pair heroically managing to find hope in the midst of tragedy. 28 Weeks Later has a sniper who’s afraid of blood (no lie), two nondescript kids, a generic Scottish guy, and a chief medical officer who’s way too cute to have come by her position reputably. It also has a horde of generic army guys who make dirty jokes, reminisce about home, grunt at each other, and make me wish each movie ticket came with a loaded revolver.

 

Though I didn’t get to shoot myself, I still got the vicarious thrill of seeing all kinds of guns on screen. 28 Weeks Later loves weapons almost as much as it loves the “shakycam.” With the way it fetishes military technology, the film is basically Picasso’s Guernica without the pathos, courage or genius. The movie even manages to rip off that helicopter-beheading gimmick that Grindhouse already used this season. The only problem? Grindhouse knows it’s camp. 28 Weeks Later takes itself seriously. And that, my friends, is a truly deadly virus.

 

Worth the money? No. If you’re dying for post-apocalyptic zombies, go to Borders and buy Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend, the book that inspired the first zombie flicks.

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12