Review: 28 Weeks Later

Saw the vcd (that I bought recently) of 28 Weeks Later last night.

It's a story of events 28 weeks post 28 Days Later, where the zombies have died and people have re-entered Britain (or as hinted, repatriated back) to reconstruct it with the assistance of an almost all-American NATO force. Most of the rest of England is fenced off, while the citizens live in a protected reconstruction zone. The zombie-infection is re-introduced into the city by a stroke of stupidy and carelessness, via contact with an asymptomatic carrier of the virus, who was brought into the reconstruction zone.

28 Days Later was a great atmospheric-shocker zombie movie set in England. It was well-filmed and well-written, so I hoped the sequel, 28 Weeks Later, might be just as good. 28 Weeks Later was made by original production crew, with original director Danny Boyle playing a key role as the Executive Producer.

However, I was quite let down by 28 Weeks Later. Besides a shocking opening scene, the rest of the movie was lacking in thrills, tension and atmosphere. Not surprising that the sequel was certainly a pale comparison to the original. It might have to do with the fact that the director is different and there were so many writers for the sequel, compared to only 1 for the original.

Furthermore, I did not have any emotional connection with the lead characters, unlike in the first film, where I felt for and sympathised with almost everyone. The leads in 28 Weeks Later were played poorly by the actors (with the exception of the very excellent Robert Carlyle, who did what he could with what he was given, then couldn't do much more because he became a zombie *sigh*).

Probably, the script was badly written and badly filmed (I felt almost no build-up of tension and the supposed climactic scene was ... clinical to me). I was immensely annoyed with everyone, and felt nothing at all when they were in danger or when they died!

While it's not a bad film (by many standards, I think it exceeds alot of the Hollywood fare), I think it failed to live up to the standards set by 28 Days Later. I do not regret spending time watching this film, but I was quite disappointed by it.


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