Tag Archives: 28-years-later

28 Years Later

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I recently rewatched 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later, the two other films in this franchise in preparation for this new film, 28 Years Later, which reunited Danny Boyle as director and Alex Garland as a writer (they worked together on 28 Days Later). After watching 28 Years Later, I realized that I really did not need to do that homework.

28 Years Later does pick up the story of the Rage Virus, with England now being a fully isolated and quarantined. It started off with an action set featuring boy named Jimmy. After we see this, the film is set in a village on the island of Lindisfarne, where we meet Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and his sickly wife Isla (Jodie Comer). They have a son named Spike (Alfie Williams) and Jamie is preparing to take Spike to the mainland on his first infected kill, a right of passage for the young boy.

The father-son had some harrowing adventures on the mainland and had to struggle to avoid an Alpha infected (zombie?) to make their way home.

Spike is very concerned with his mother’s mysterious illness and he takes her on a journey to the mainland in search of help for her.

This movie feel like two parts. The first part is the father-son adventure of Jamie and Spike and the second part is Spike’s adventure with his mom. Spike is 100% the main character and Aaron Taylor-Johnson disappears in the second part of the movie. Alfie Williams does an exceptional job as the main protagonist and we see Spike mature throughout the movie as he faces more and more dangers in the world. Alfie Williams has to carry way more of this film on his back than I ever thought possible and the young actor does a remarkable job of it.

Ralph Fiennes showed up eventually in a great role, but what would you expect? Ralph Fiennes is one of our greatest working actors.

The film has an old timey feel to it, which I believe is in the manner in which Danny Boyle shot the film. It was reported that he shot much of the film using iPhones and you could see the way that made the film appear. However, this film had several strange and experimental type shots that did not work as well for me. There were many film footage spliced in with the movie, which, at times, felt out of place. In particular, shots of a group of, what seemed to be knights shooting arrows in medieval times were used and I did not like that. They also inserted several flashes of infected just out of nowhere, in an attempt to make the shot feel more dreamlike. Many of these interludes felt out of place for me as well.

Without spoiling it, I was not a fan of the ending of the movie. I had not known that there was a sequel to this movie already done filming. 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is scheduled to come out January 2026 and the ending of this movie is so much of a set up for the next movie that it is kind of irritating.

This is very much a different film than either of the first two that I think there may be some viewers who find it annoying and not what they were after. I did feel the length of the film at times and the distinctly different parts of the film did feel weird. You could almost call this an artistic vision of a zombie movie and not be too far off.

There were a lot of tense moments, but, if I am being sincere, I felt more tense watching the trailers for this movie than I did during the actual film. There were some solid emotional moments and there were some frightening scenes too, but those trailers were really good and built up a tone that the film did not sustain throughout.

Overall, I liked this movie a lot, even if I had some questions about some choices made, both in the story and in the presentation. Alfie Williams is a star in the making and he stands out here among some great actors.

3.9 stars

28 Weeks Later (2007)

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Preparing for 20 Years Later which will be released later in the month of June, I wanted to rewatch the first two films of the franchise. I was up to 28 Weeks Later, the sequel to 28 Days Later.

28 Weeks Later was different than the first film, but it was still very intense and anxiety-filled. The second film listed Danny Boyle and Alex Garland as producers, but the direction was done by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo.

Then, 28 Days Later featured a cast with not very many big stars, where as 28 Weeks Later would be considered an all-star cast. The cast of 28 Weeks Later included Jeremy Renner, Idris Elba, Robert Carlyle, Harold Perrineau, Rose Byrne, Imogene Poots, Catherine McCormack, Amanda Walker, and Mackintosh Muggleton.

According to IMDB, “Almost six months after London was decimated by the unstoppable Rage Virus in 28 Days Later (2002), the U.S. Army has restored peace and repopulated the quarantined city. However, the deadly epidemic reawakens when an unsuspecting carrier of the highly transmittable pathogen enters the dead capital with the first wave of returning refugees. This time, the horrible virus is more dangerous than ever. Has the next nightmare begun?“

This was a solid sequel to the first film and this brought a serious vibe to it. The desperate struggle to survive was even more in effect here as our protagonists faced so many more obstacles than just the return of the “Rage” virus. The military brought yet another level of threat to our characters.

Robert Carlyle, who played Rumpelstiltskin in Once Upon A Time, is amazing in this film. He kicked things off making a choice that gives us a glance at his character, but you can understand where he was coming from. It did not make him look any better even if you do understand. I loved Jeremy Renner in this movie, even if I had a hard time thinking about him as anyone other than Hawkeye.

There were some scenes that really stretched credibility here. These scenes add tension to the story, even if they are unbelievably unlikely to actually happen.

I do believe the first film was a tighter story and the second one is a little messier. Some of the scenes of the infected attacking others remind me of scenes when Killer Bob would attack someone on Twin Peaks Still, the shots did feel more artistic than just gory.

I do not expect any connection between these two films and 28 Years Later, outside of the “Rage” virus because of the length of time. I am still pleased that I was able to watch these two films before 28 Years Later comes out.