28 Years Later

28 years after the Rage Virus spread throughout mainland Britain, people have found strange and interesting ways to survive among the infected. One group of survivors, for example, lives on a small island that has a single, heavily-defended causeway. But when someone from the group leaves the island on a mission into the mainland, he discovers how the infected - and other mainland survivors - have mutated over the years.

Now, for anyone who is unfamiliar with this franchise, you should know that you do not need to watch the previous two films in order to understand what is going on here. 28 Years Later is a standalone story that focuses on completely brand new characters.

All you really need to know is that the Rage Virus is unlike any other zombie virus. This virus doesn't technically kill it's host, it just makes them uncontrollably violent and rage-fueled. And while that is an interesting detail that separates this franchise from every other zombie related project, it can also lead to some bafflingly strange sequences. Most of which are present in this movie specifically.

I won't spoil what those sequences are in this review but, suffice it to say that the movie does make creative decisions that definitely won’t work for everyone. I'm not even entirely sure if they worked for me personally, because some of these creative choices led to incredibly jarring and bizarre shifts in tone.

The movie could be lingering on a surprisingly beautiful and emotionally resonating scene one minute, and abruptly take a hard left turn into the stupidest thing you've ever seen in the next minute! And some of these creative choices are never even explained! They just randomly pop up without any kind of context whatsoever. Giant alpha zombies are cool and terrifying, but everything else felt rather questionable.

Still, even with all of that being said, I can't deny that the weird creative choices did give the movie a fun punk rock kind of vibe. One that shows how director Danny Boyle still has spunk. It may have been a few decades since he made movies like Trainspotting or 28 Days Later, but this movie proved that he still has a unique directorial style. Sure, that style may be a bit weird, but I really respect his originality and creativity; he was able to tell an engaging story with interesting characters.

28 Years Later tells the story of a boy trying to protect his mom. And that did make for a rather compelling story, especially since we see that boy deal with infected, stray soldiers, giant alpha zombies, and other dangers.

So, even though Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ralph Fiennes are the biggest names in this cast, the best performance definitely comes from 14-year-old Alfie Williams. This kid did a fantastic job of leading the film! He's so good that you'd never guess that this was his feature film debut. So I'm definitely interested in seeing where Williams' career will go from here.

But I should clarify that everyone in the cast delivers a really solid performance as well. Aaron Taylor-Johnson does a great job of playing a flawed but caring father; Jodie Comer does an excellent job of playing a sick mother who is slowly losing her mind; and Ralph Fiennes does a phenomenal job of playing a mysterious character with some rather unexpected personality traits.

Speaking of unexpected, I have to admit that it was weird seeing how Britain was still in a ruthlessly enforced quarantine. Because, while I do like the concept of seeing how one specific area has been affected by this crisis, I just don't believe that the infection wouldn't spread beyond mainland Britain. I mean, if people can accidentally make in on to the island, people can find a way to make it off of the island as well. And we know this is true, since we saw the infection spread to France at the end of 28 Weeks Later. But I guess this was a plot point that Boyle just wanted to ignore.

And by ignore, I mean retcon. Because the movie does take the time to acknowledge how the rest of the world is doing. Which is fine, apparently. How weird is that?? Britain has been overrun with zombies and the rest of the world couldn’t care less. I’m not sure if that’s a believable plot point, but it does line up with the franchise's message about consumerism. 

Interesting themes don't make up for unanswered questions and potential plot holes, though, and the movie does have a few of those as well. But even in spite of the issues I have with it, I can’t deny that I found this film to be thoroughly entertaining. It was a wonderfully chaotic film that featured some surprisingly genuine moments of beauty.

So, 28 Years Later is a sequel that was definitely worth waiting for. It may not be as influential as 28 Days Later was, but I do think it’s a lot better than 28 Weeks Later. That’s my opinion at least. I definitely enjoyed watching this one singular story, especially since Boyle utilized some interesting filming techniques in order to tell that story.

And since I want to see how this story will continue in Nia DaCosta’s The Bone Temple, I can’t deny that 28 Years Later would absolutely get recommendation from me.