28 Weeks Later

Tagline: When days turn into weeks…

The Story:

The film picks up literally 28 weeks after the initial outbreak of the Rage virus in Britain. It has been five weeks since the last infected person has died of starvation and U.S. military-NATO forces have moved into quarantine & clean the infected mainland. They have begun repopulating Britain by bringing refugees back in. But one of them has a secret…

The film opens with Robert Carlyle and Catherine McCormack holed up in a cottage out in the British countryside. They’re preparing a meal and discussing the fate of their kids as they traveled away for vacation just before the outbreak and how lucky the kids are. Their dinner is interrupted by a young boy that has fled from a pack of infected that included his parents trying to kill him. This line of dialogue sets up the film’s main theme: reconnection. The cottage is overrun with infected soon after this. Carlyle and his band of strangers try to flee before it’s too late and his wife is trapped upstairs in a room. He sees her and makes a conscious decision to save himself while leaving her doomed. Running across the yard outside, he sees her screaming for him through the window and he continues running like a coward. Leaping onto a boat, he pulls away to safety.

28 Weeks Later…

An area designated as a Green Zone of sorts for people has been sectioned off by the military. Riding the train with the refugees, we get a brief overview of what has happened since the outbreak. This sets up the film pretty well. I felt like I was on the back-lot tram tour at Universal Studios.

A few wide shots show the scope of military presence from ground level to building rooftops. We don’t really get a chance to connect to any of these soldiers except Jeremy Renner and that’s very brief in itself.

The ever beautiful and highly underused, Rose Byrne, plays the medical specialist and seems to be the only doctor there, greets the kids and checks out their vitals. She notices an odd trait within the boy where his eye has two distinct colors. Just like his mother. (Plot tool number one, must be from Robert McKee’s novel).

Carlyle waits for his kids to get off the train. Excited to see him, they travel to their new home in a luxurious high-rise complex which he helped set the electricity up for and has a convenient pass that allows him to access EVERY place within the quarantined zone. (Plot tool number two).

Within a couple moments of being home, the kids ask what happened to their mom. After seeing flashbacks of what happened in the cottage (just in case we missed something), Carlyle lies to his kids and says that she was dead and there was nothing he could do. This scene is way too long and unnecessary.

The next day those pesky kids travel outside of the green zone to the infected zone. They want to go home one more time. Upon their arrival, they grab some belongings and stumble upon their mother hiding within the house. (God only knows how she got from the country cottage to their house). She seems to be normal and cries when she sees the kids.

Military personnel descend upon the house and bring the kids and their mother back to the quarantined zone. After some lame banter between the kids and their dad, they yell at him for lying to them. All I can say is Karma!

Rose’s character checks out McCormack and figures out that she’s carrying the virus but shows no symptoms. Interesting idea here, but it’s quickly dropped due to Carlyle as he uses his SPEED PASS and accesses the secured hospital. He ventures in when Rose is away discussing her findings with the powers that be. Carlyle goes in and talks to his wife. He kisses her and turns into an infected. Mayhem ensues and the military executes Code Red…

Rumors are circulating that Danny Boyle, director of the original 28 Days Later… came in to direct the opening sequence of this film. After watching it last evening, I must say that the prologue is mesmerizing. The film grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go until the opening credits roll.

Then the baton is passed off to Juan Carlos Fresnadillo…

Intacto was an intriguing film. I recently watched it again to get ready for the release of 28 Weeks. Juan is a visionary director that has yet to find his stride. Given time, he will but 28 Weeks does not let him stretch his creative legs.

With a runtime of 99 minutes, the film seemed to be missing a few beats. The dramatic effect the original had is completely absent here and coincidence has replaced the finer moments. When an audience laughs throughout the film at certain points, you will understand what I mean.

Rose Byrne does an exceptional job and I’m anxious to see her in Boyle’s next epic, SUNSHINE, due later this year. Everyone else tries hard, but the story elements just weren’t in place. I absolutely loved the original. It had an epic quality with compelling themes interwoven that provided a helluva punch to the gut.

Less is usually more and in the case of 28 Weeks Later… the film seems to be infected with sequelitis. It reminded me of Resident Evil 2…the zombies in that film lost their edge as do the infected in this one. I think there were too many hands in the pot and Fox Atomic screwed the pooch on this one. Give the film a try, but don’t expect anything brilliant.

*cough*cough*

— Jack Reher