28 Weeks Later

After seeing the premiere preview, London last week, at Fox Atomic studios theatre, I thought I'd write up the review for iVirtua. As far as the preview went - the free mini buffet and expensive mexican beer went down well

Obviously trying to make a good impression on the press who were there.

The movie is a follow on from 28 Days - it was overall a quite a Jumpy, well made movie. There are some pretty good photograph as far as portraying an empty london goes, and the camera work and scenes are very impressive to say the least. The storyline is well thought, and clever, and the movie makes an all-be it too obvious statement at the end - where, *spoiler* the child who is a carrier of, but not directly affected by the virus goes to france - the closing scene showsvirus infected people undernearth the eiffel tower. The movie revolves about the "carrying" aspect of the Virus. The film has a very different feel from the original, though - which was almost inevitable, given different captains at the helm this time around. The problem is, fans of '28 Days Later' enjoyed that movie for the fresh angle on a worn subject. The music and choice of music adds a whole new dimension, and when the music kicks in it really does have a powerful effect - the action scenes and jumpy scenes (of which towards the end you start to expect), are quite unique to 28 Weeks.

The film starts six months after the Rage virus has spread throughout the city of London. The United States Army has restored order and is repopulating the quarantined city, when a carrier of the Rage virus enters London and unknowingly re-ignites the spread of the deadly infection, wreaking havoc on the entire population. Written by thegiantcookie

Seven months after the rage virus has annihilated the British isles, the US army declares that the war against infection has been won, and that the reconstruction of the country can begin. In the first wave of returning refugees, a family is reunited--but one of them unwillingly carries a terrible secret. The virus is not yet dead, and this time, it is more dangerous than ever.

The Chief Medial officer woman gets caught up in the chaos that ensues when Carlyle's kids decide to break through the barrier between the safe inner-city area and the unsecured and contaminated wider London. Shes is hollywood 'gorgeous'... but her acting is definitely on the flat side. A sole infected zombie manages to begin spreading the Rage Virus inside the green zone and naturally, the US military presence doesn't react very logically. The kids, with Rose Byrne and a decent support cast plot their extraction, while now having to avoid being sniped as much as eaten - rounding up nicely to end with an all apparent good ending - with the twist of the "carrier" and spread to france.

Everything that does go wrong happens because someone ignores the ground rules, tries to save someone else, or thinks they know better than the others. Your morals, judgment, and emotions are tested when watching, and you should expect nothing less!! Guilt and betrayal lurk darkly beneath the self-satisfied optimism of the new order. This time it's the accidental discovery of a particular betrayal — outside the well-controlled Green Zone — that kicks off another outbreak, which doesn't spread so much as it explodes within the locked-down area, unleashing an Armageddon of unrelenting, close-range violence. What happens when it becomes too hard to tell the infected from the innocent bystanders should come as no surprise. Once trust and judgment are called into question, protection and self-preservation quickly give way to preemptive aggression. As the mayhem in the streets spreads, the military imperative takes an ominous turn, and the good guys reveal themselves by their willingness to disobey orders.

The violence is also surprisingly more confronting and graphic than you might expect, despite being a zombie film. The genre doesn't really suit the squeamish anyway, but we were kind of shocked by the wince-inducing level of bloodshed - it has a pretty, again, unique effect. In particular, seeing a woman's eyes get pushed in and her face beaten unrecognisable kind of crosses a line into bad taste territory, regardless of the context. It is unapologetic and combined with the ramped-up action, we were left with the impression that the story actually ended up glorifying brutality as a justified solution to any given situation. It's a strange departure given the original's emphasis on emotional values and the detrimental impact of military involvement. As I did say, the film is very jumpy - making many of the press exclaim "Fucking Hell"

28 Weeks is not the low budget film 28 Days was - it reeks big bucks with impressive firestorms and SFX. Further reinforcing the 'Hollywoodisation' of the film, the special effects are pretty impressive choppers swivel and swoop, things explode and a whole flock of Infected get minced by twirling helicopter blades. Large scale stunts also occur with much greater frequency and a large cast of extras fill evocative sets.

You most definatly have, if you have been in London recently seen the "viral" marketing (excuse the pun) - in the form of street sprays, and even the "CONTAMINATED - KEEP OUT" projected on to the white cliffs at dover and houses of parliement earlier this year.

It took me a while to realise they filmed the tube part, at Aldwych tube station - I recongised it, and realised it is the unised station they use for film sets - just off the picadilly line near covent garden as a matter of fact.

It's an interesting film - wich will certainly please - As a zombie film, '28 Weeks Later' works pretty well - but it isn't particularly original by any means. This might be a sequel to '28 Days Later', but in name only... It has a very different feel and emphasis this time around, and the unique British appeal has been replaced by a more default American culture, thanks to the inclusion of the US Special Forces teams and army attitude. This basic inclusion has diluted what made '28 Days Later' stand out. Ultimately it goes nowhere and adds much less to the genre than its predecessor, though it's quite unique in doing so with some neat effects and good composition.

Ah and a final word - Fox Atomic is owned by Rupert Murdoch - who also owns all of the following - so don't believe any reivews from... News International, News Limited, News of the World, New York Post, The Sun, The Sunday Times, thelondonpaper, The Times, GameSpy, IGN, MySpace, Rotten Tomatoes, HarperCollins...

http://www.foxatomic.com is the offical movie site for 28 Weeks Later

28 Weeks Later on MySpace - It's a good profile with trailers and exclusive pictures

A good trailer for 28 Weeks on YouTube
28 Weeks "First Look" on YouTube
Read a review of 28 Weeks Later at timeout.com

Eden.sb · Joined: 23 May 2007 Articles: 2 Comments: 1

A month to come trough Manche, clearly no worldwide release on this one, how sad, Ill be getting the trailers and the look pretty fine, just in the good taste for my second run trough Stalker ^^.

Thanks for that review Sam.

jpmaris · Joined: 15 Dec 2006 Articles: 2 Comments: 1

Thanks for taking the time to post your review.