2nd Opinion: 28 Weeks Later 3/5 reviewed by Mike

Here's a new feature for the crew! 2nd opinion--when the crew disagrees with itself. I must respectfully disagree with Corey about "28 Weeks Later." Now, hear me--I'm going to say some bad things about this film, mostly to counterpoint Corey's review, but this is by NO means a BAD movie. I didn't feel like I wasted my time or money, but this movie doesn't belong anywhere near a 5.

The thing about this movie is that it's executed very well, but it's script is really not that good. The directing is great, the acting is above average, all the craft elements are pretty good, especially the music. The music is the best thing about this movie. Even during the chaotic action scenes, the music isn't death metal, like you'd expect, it's rock that is simultaneous scary, haunting, but mostly sad. In fact, during some of the deaths, instead of feeling scared or horrified, I actually found myself moved to sadness at the tragedy of it all, and thats due entirely to the brilliant music. Special effects are great too. Firebombing scenes look great, costumes are great, etc.

The problem is, although executed well, the story was just very, very lacking. It's typical sequel fare, and relies VERY heavily on horror movie cliches, and ends up being very gimmicky. What I loved about "28 Days" was that it took zombies and put them in a realistic setting--what would ACTUALLY happen? This movie puts them back into the land of stupid coincidences, and horror movie stereotypes. The amount of "suspension of disbelief" that this movie asks you to make is far, far more than I am willing to. If you pilot a helicopter like that, you WOULD crash. You don't just walk around a corner and happen to bump into the people you're looking for after you've been separated in a riot. Army soldiers would never DO that. An Apache Helicopter does NOT have enormous trouble taking out a car. There's no way that they can keep running into the same zombie over and over again all over the city. You can't spend 20 minutes of a film building up the idea of crazy careful military presence, and then have it not notice or respond at all to something like this. And this is the tip of the iceberg...

Overall, the story relies solely on freak coincidence and Divine intervention, rather than a sense of realism that made the first one so notable (and better). The script asks you to make so many ridiculous logic leaps that I just gave up after a while. Yes, there's usually suspension of disbelief in action movies, but this was too much, especially when the realism of the original film is the point, and the main draw for me. The nail in the coffin for me was the ultimate gimmick at the end. After the movie rightfully ends, there's a little "tag" put on. I found myself thinking "oh no, if I see what I think I'm about to see..." and then I did. It was cheesy, a lame gimmick, and just made me roll my eyes. Coupled with the story structure problems and severe lack of character development, and I really can't give this more than a 3. These problems don't make it a bad movie, they just keep it from being a GREAT movie.

Is it worth seeing? Probably. Especially if you like zombies, and action/horror thrillers. It's scary, cool, and thrilling (the opening sequence is quite brilliant, actually). But there's nothing here you haven't seen before, and seen better in other movies, especially the original 28 Days Later.

As a footnote: this movie reminds me yet again: the BEST zombie story EVER is being done currently as a serially-released monthly comic book entitled "Walking Dead," by Robert Kirkman. It comes out every month, but you'll probably want to start at the beginning. Run to your local comic shop and pick up the first collection.