Author: Flatty
Date: 7/27/03
Rating: 7.5
Movie Rating: R
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I must say, this movie received a LOT of hype. Reviews were pinning it as "the scariest movie since 'whatever'" and the commercials for it showed people getting really scared at some of the movie's screenings. So, naturally, I was very excited to see it. Unfortunately, that could have been a big part in what ruined the movie for me.
Let's take a step back for a second. What images does the genre of "zombie horror" movies create in your head? Cheesy animation, lame plot, etc. Considering that 28 Days Later does fall into that genre, I think this movie is leagues ahead of anything else in the category, but I still think it fell short of being a really good movie.
The idea is solid. Viral experimentation on animals, activists come to free the creatures and unwittingly release the virus on the population. I really, really like this setup for the movie. A nice twist of dark irony, my favorite. So, 28 days later we have our main character wake up to an absolutely deserted part of England and wander around aimlessly for a while. I'm still with the movie here. Soon he comes across a few of the infected, who are absolutely awesome. Far better than any slow moving, "braaaaaainnns" screaming zombies. These guys are fast, they're strong, they can run long distances, and want nothing more than to infect your ass. Awesome. Barfing blood all over the place is also very cool, in my book. So, our main character escapes from these zombies and meets up with a few normal humans who turn our main character's pursuers into extra crispy firecrackers. At this time, we see a definite amount of helplessness and uselessness of our main character as compared to the two humans he hooks up with at that point. This will come into play later. Anyway, on progresses the movie. We have a death, another meeting, and then an absolutely bizarre second half of the movie that I have very mixed feelings about.
First off, where exactly did our main character suddenly pick up some pretty elite skills? He goes into a barn that has a lot of rotting corpses in it and disposes of a little zombie kid with his back turned and only a baseball bat to protect himself? Seems very unlikely. But that's only the beginning. I know we're fastforwarding far ahead in the movie now, but at his execution, he shows a surprising amount of badass-iocity when faced up against two elite MILITARY people. He loses his pursuers (who are carrying automatic rifles), leads them into a "trap" and proceeds to run around like a half naked James Bond, popping in and out of places to grab their attention and throw them off their guard? Then he kills one with what appears to be a spinning chain in the rain? Sorry, that's not the same guy I saw running and screaming from some church-zombies that wanted to eat his brains. Then he manages to get back to the mansion, fire a gun to free the zombie in captivity (do you know how hard it is to hit a chain with a BULLET?), and then proceeds to run around the house like he himself is infected and just kills everyone he sees. Definitely not the guy I remember from the beginning. You just can't pick up skills like that from nowhere. Sorry.
Backing up a bit to where the little caravan meets up with the military guys. This is like a whole new movie and it gets absolutely bizarre, as I mentioned above. What is the deal with these guys anyway? They're portrayed as sex-starved animals who just want to kill and screw. News flash... they've been in their current situation for only about 28 days. You don't turn into a sex-crazed maniac after 28 days. You'd think they'd be a little more accomodating to EVERY HUMAN BEING they come across, considering that they're convinced that there are so few left. You just don't act extra creepy towards potential "last people on earth" and then order them executed, even if you can't procreate with them.
There are a few things that this movie does very well though. As I mentioned above, the beginning and setup for the story are quite awesome and very much tickle my fancy. The infected also have a very high coolness factor. However, what this movie does best is its cinematography. The camera work is absolutely amazing. While the final result wasn't that scary, the movie does a brilliant job of cutting between scenes, especially during tense parts of the movie like when the infected are chasing after their taxi, or when our main character is being a badass, or when the infected-in-chains breaks free and goes for a little revenge.
But there's one thing that absolutely kills me. Look at the really big picture in this movie. There's a virus released. 28 days later almost everyone in England (and the rest of the world??) is infected. Then we focus on the lives of a few survivors for a day or two. 28 days after that, all the zombies starve to death. Well, that's not terribly exciting. The movie never explains how these zombies stay alive anyway. Do you ever see them feeding on other people? (Like actually eating them?) I know that in the church there were a lot of zombies clustered around what appeared to be dead people, but I'm just not sure. Every other time we see zombies, they're either infecting others by barfing on them, or just hanging out with their corpses. I never saw any half-eaten people, so I really don't know what's going on. It'd be nice if that wee-detail was explained, since it does seem to contradict that whole survival of species thing that seems to be deeply ingrained in every single living organism in the world.