28 Weeks Later

As promised, here’s my puny $0.02 on this movie.

This ia M18 movie for having some strong violence and several F words during the show. Heh.

Apparently, this is a sequel to the movie titled “28 Days Later”. According to this gv site, the prequel is supposedly (to quote it) “terrifically successful”. I guess this sequel is kinda failure. Since i didnt watch the prequel, i can’t compare between them, but this one is definitely not a success to me.

And so, this movie begins with the virus already rampant and there’s this group of people hiding in the house totally sealed up with wooden planks and stuff to prevent any light from getting, which i presume is to hide their presence to the plentiful zombies out there. And so, things happen and Dad becomes the only dude that survives.

Then, a short summary of what things took place over the next 28 weeks in Britain, and the show resumes after the 28 weeks. Hence, the movie title i guess. And so, there’s a peaceful and safe area in Britain being rebuilt. Oh, did i mention it was the US army that took care of exterminating and rebuilding of the place? So typical right. Always US do this do that in other countries. And so, how does the virus come back? Obviously it has to or else nothing happen. And it finally a carrier of the virus (but not infected) passes on to someone who doesn’t have some kind of “immunity”. And all hell breaks loose once more!

Then what do u do? The standard formula will be to contain. What if it fails? Kill lah! And so the extermination begins. Well then what’s there to show? Of course the exciting tale of a small group of survivors escaping from the hordes of infected. As one would expect the dear main leads dont die while escaping or else there’ll be no show! Thus what can the producer do? Make some good guys die in aiding the main leads escape longer, and hopefully finally survive the ordeal. Why the main leads so valuable? Cos they may contain the key to a cure/vaccine to this crazy virus. Must always have a reason to keep certain people alive as a top priority mah right? And so they run, and run. Someone dies along the way. More people die, leaving the main leads. And so they finally escape.

And then what’s the ending? Seems like the virus outbreak got more insane since the carrier escaped by helicopter away from Britain. They supposedly landed somewhere near France since the final scene shows a horde of zombies running wildly near the Eiffel (i have lousy spelling) tower. Do i sense another sequel? Maybe.

Sounds so standard for a zombie-related movie huh. U dont even get enough kick of violence if u’re into that kind. Yeah, i can’t really find anything outstanding worth complimenting on. Maybe the emptiness of streets and darkness at night w/o electricity and night vision recording? Can see evident use of CG in the movies. Maybe good job to the make up artists. It must be a heck of a job to make up for zombies. Now what else. Hmm… sound effects? Shrugs.

Some plot holes/movie mistakes that are quite bad imo. They may not appear in order as with the movie. I’ll just write what i can recall off-hand. Oh, and it may contain even more spoilers. And also, i may not be 100% right too! :P

1) When they found their Mom alive and she’s brought back to the medical facility and is examined after her “de-con”, the doctor only noticed ONE bite mark on her arm when the Dr was trying to take a blood sample from the Mom. There weren’t any other clearly visible injuries/bite marks/wounds. It’s amazing considering how many of those “zombies” raided the cottage and probably chased after her while trying to “escape”. On top of that, during her flashback of her escape from the place, she wasn’t really bloody or had signs of being “rampaged” by raged/violent “zombies”. Pretty amazing huh since for the other parts of the movie, those “zombies” are so violent to their victims. Really really strange there. She must have been one hell of a superwoman.

2) From the movie, it is clear that from the airport is in a different from the “safe zone”. All incoming passengers had to do their body/blood check for deadly diseases/viruses before allowing them to proceed onto getting into the “safe zone”. So why didn’t the military “analyse” the Mom in some medical facility OUTSIDE the safe zone but bring a survivor after 2 months of 0 survivor found back INTO the safe zone. Shouldn’t the military be more cautious about such a deadly virus? Oh well, i guess that’s how u get the movie going right…?

3) Then when the 2 main children were “naughty” and ran from away from the safe zone to go back home to get a photo of their mom, it’s quite amazing they were able to run that far before any soldier noticed them even though the place is supposedly heavily guarded with many soldiers and many many cameras watching over the entire safe zone. Well then, they were indeed noticed running off in the end by this sniper dude and he informed other people about it. However, the military kinda decided to take their own sweet time to find them. With helis and whatnot they sure took long. The kids could walk into some street. Saw a bike and the elder sister took her time to look for the keys in the store (slow due to her fear of possible zombies still alive somewhere and also the sight of dead bodies and the stench of rotten food/bodies). And then the kids STILL had time to go to their home, get a photo, pack some stuff and the younger boy being able to explore the house (and eventually saw his mom) before we could see military personnel outside the home. Amazing. How hard is it to notice 2 moving people in a dead town on a chopper since they knew where they started from anyway.

4) When the Dad found out that Mom is still alive he decided to go look for her. Fine, that’s understandable. It’s also possible to know where’s she located, but how the heck did he get the cards to access all the way into her cell? I mean it’s a military-based medical facility that required access clearance using some kind of smart card. Sure he has an AAA (access all areas) card but i thought that was only meant for the building he was staying in? Wow, he sure has some talent in making a fake smart card or really good at stealing. Props to him.

5) Dad knows how many zombies raided the cottage he ran away from. He also would know that the zombies would definitely attack his dear wife. Yeah he may be super happy that his wife is alive but he doesnt seem very concerned on how she survived and happy kissed her on the lips thus coming into contact with her saliva. Also, shouldnt he feel ashamed to even do that after he abandoned her for his own survival. Yay. He becomes the next true zombie. More violence in the show to come!

6) After the order to kill everyone is passed down to the soldiers and snipers, i didn’t even see one grenade being thrown, even in areas that had no nearby troops. Wouldn’t that be a more effective way to clear some zombies? From what i see, zombies still die due to fatal gunshot wounds and thus i would think grenades CAN work. The great US army doesnt carry any grenades? Wow.

7) When Mr good-guy sniper was leading the Dr, 2 kids and another man in the dark they came under fire from a fellow US sniper. It’s not strange since a “kill-all” order has been passed down. But now what’s strange is that the air force has been called in to bomb the place flat. Logically they should evacuate all their troops from the frontline which seems to be the case in other parts of the zone. Now there’s this hero still behind trying to add to his total frags? Yay, another smart move to create more drama/action right? Heh heh.

8) And how can i forget the innocent little boy at the beginning of the show? His dad and mom apparently were infected with the virus and so he tries to escape. He mentioned he went to other houses to knock but they were all empty. Well then now, how does a kid run faster than a mob of enraged zombies and still have time to knock on doors? Simply amazing. And it’s not like he can just knock and run off. He has to WAIT for response (if any). It’s amazing he can have that much time. He definitely will become a world class runner if trained and break whatever running records there are.

9) Now for Mr Good-guy heli pilot. Let’s see. I shall be kind and assume his heli has full tank of fuel when on top of the roof. And so when Code Red is activated, he flies his dear heli over the zone. I dont recall a specific time was shown but i guess it wasnt all that late at night. Since it seemed a long while before daybreak appeared. Well then again, it’s europe so their night and day durations may vary from what I experience here. Okay even then, i assume he flew nonstop ever since Code Red was activated. Plus, the air strike was ordered not too long after it was activated, i would assume no re-fuel aircraft will be so kind to fly into the zone and re-fuel that dear heli. Then he continues flying, meeting Mr Good-guy sniper at some park which is already bright in the day. And since the survivor group seemed to have covered quite some distance BY FOOT with an injured Dr with them, definitely hours have passed. Wow. the heli can fly so long! It doesnt end there. Later on, it camps at some stadium waiting for whatever is left of the surviving group. Ok even it camped there for long long time liao, i still assume no re-fuel was done. I mean the pilot switched off all other frequency channels too. And then when the 2 lovely children arrive, the heli still can fly across god knows how far a distance, presumably ending somewhere near france/paris. Does it ever run of fuel?? Hmm…

10) When people were evacuated to designated areas when Code Red was activated, they shutdown the lights and electricity and then reactivated emergency lighting. However the area meant for the dear people had no light whatsoever and they had to resort to using lighters and whatnot. Not a really good evaucation area i must say. Plus there’s no military personnel in there to look after the people nor any surveillance cameras to monitor them. U can’t assume that outbreak wont hit them can u? (I guess the darkness is to create the suspense/horror while watching the movie. hic.)

11) i’m lazy to find more faults with the movie liao. maybe next time refer to moviemistakes.com. haha.

Feel free to correct any of the observations i’ve made. Sorry that the review is so short yet the plot holes/movie mistakes part is soooo much longer. Maybe i went a little overboard. Haha. Anyway i certainly wouldn’t want to see 28 months later, 28 years later or 28 decades later.

My take: 2/5 (i’m so kind)
Duration: 100 minutes
Opens: 10 May 2007 (today)

p.s. maybe the $0.02 wasn’t that puny (in terms of length) after all. next movie review should be spiderman 3 ^_^