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Horror 28 Years Later

The way the movie lampshades 28 Weeks Later is hilarious but also problematic.
 
The ending of this film almost completely ruins the whole thing.

It felt like watching a parody of a zombie film - Shaun of the Dead.

Can't believe that scene is set in the same universe where 28 Days and Weeks take place. And we're following THIS scene next year into a sequel directed by The Marvels' director?

Thngs aren't looking good :(
I had some issues with the tone throughout the film, for example I don't think the score felt like a horror score and didn't elevate the scary parts (like in the original movie). But if they had sealed the deal with the ending I think I could have brushed some of those problems off as hiccups along the way if they wrapped it up nicely.

But I had a similar reaction to the ending, I was sitting there thinking "what is going on?!". It's a combination of character design choices (and wardrobe) but it felt like Guy Ritchie took over for 5 minutes or something. It felt completely at odds with the more serious and "realistic" tone established in the franchise. If I had seen that scene alone outside of the movie I would have thought it was a scene from Scary Movie 6 spoofing the zombie genre.
 
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David Cameron was right, "Brits don't quit". :o
 
Critic rating still at 93%, but I do see the audience rating at 68%. I am hoping to see it today, but looks like this may prove divisive if general reactions are like the ones yall posted above. I am curious to see what big swings Boyle and Garland take here
 
As a whole, I loved this movie.
But the ending with the group he runs into at the end, yes that was tonal whiplash and like a different movie lol! Didn't love that part. But I loved the rest of the movie, so willing to see where it goes. As a coming of age drama about a boy wanting to save his mother, it was amazing
 
I had some issues with the tone throughout the film, for example I don't think the score felt like a horror score and didn't elevate the scary parts (like in the original movie). But if they had sealed the deal with the ending I think I could have brushed some of those problems off as hiccups along the way if they wrapped it up nicely.

But I had a similar reaction to the ending, I was sitting there thinking "what is going on?!". It's a combination of character design choices (and wardrobe) but it felt like Guy Ritchie took over for 5 minutes or something. It felt completely at odds with the more serious and "realistic" tone established in the franchise. If I had seen that scene alone outside of the movie I would have thought it was a scene from Scary Movie 6 spoofing the zombie genre.

I would agree the score wasn't a horror score. That said, I don't really think this was a horror movie. This felt more like a thriller/drama set in a posy Apocalypse. Yeah, we have infected in this movie and they're a threat, but the core of the story is a character piece, and in that way I think the score worked. I was gripped during the action scenes. I was really moved by the music in several character moments of the movie.

This was a very different movie from 28 Days Later. To a shocking degree and I didn't expect this to be the movie at all. But that said....I think outside that one thing in my spoiler section above, I thought this movie was great
 
I just watched it. 2 people walked out half way through.

I don't know....dont get me wrong I liked it, it just wasn't what I was expecting AT ALL lol. The ending was also....as others said...interesting to say the least.

The first part of the film felt very 28__ later, the middle was....deep, a little strange....the end was...I don't even know.

Having it center around a small island of people was certainly a good way to go to explore things, the characters were likable and relatable. Coming of age story with a hot father who of course is flawed as his wife is slowly but surely dying of cancer. I liked Spike for the most part. The actor really sold the role very well so kudos to him. He carried the film fantastically. But as soon as he learned about the doctor and did what he did with setting something on fire to get him and his mom out of the village....I had to roll my eyes. Children..I swear. It had remnants of the 2nd film since the 2 kids wanting to see their childhood home and mother ultimately lead to a whole cities downfall but at least here he didnt impact EVERYONE around him.

I did find it hard to believe that Aarons character wouldn't go after his son and wife. Ignoring them until the end of the film felt very strange. I was expecting him to go out and help save them. Jodie of course was great. How she and Spike managed to survive was...a little interesting considering the trouble the son/dad had on their first outing.

The introduction of Erik....we meet Swedish soldiers who are terrible at their jobs, 5/6 die. Erik is a hot head but has a lot of good one liners and is able to give us updates from the outside world. Interestingly enough....the rest of civilization has gone on just fine and they are JUST LIKE US. But he dies of course when I was expecting him to make it to the end or at least have other members of the army be the ones to pick up the kid at the end instead of the Irish boy parkouring blond band.

Seeing the "zombies" evolution was certainly interesting. As with anything, they managed to evolve a little bit and gain more awareness. The introduction of the 'Alpha' was definitely an interesting one. How do these Alphas come to be? How are they all jacked hung dudes? And why did the doctor keep "Samson" alive when Samson obviously isnt a fan and has tried to kill him before?

So now we know that rage zombies procreate and have kids. They don't appear to be infected while in the womb which is interesting and very welcome. But it begs the question since we saw several kid zombies.....when and how do they become infected? Is it through the mother breastfeeding them? Does the ALpha give them a little nibble at some point? So many questions.

Has the rest of the world really just left everyone in the UK to die? No quarantine and moving them to a safe place? No billionaire trying to take back the land? Running experiments?

But yeah....what the hell was that ending. It felt like a different movie as others have said. Almost Shaun of the Dead. The long blonde hair. The jump suits. THe parkour.


Overall I enjoyed but it doesnt top the first two.
 
Outside of the ending I actually really enjoyed this for most part and can't wait to see the next movie coming out in January and I'm curious to see what Nia Dacosta brings to this franchise.

I really liked the worldbuilding here and how they further expanded the lore of the infected although I do kind of wish this world was explored a bit more.

Alfie Williams was great though and that kid definitely has a bright future ahead of him. The acting across the board was pretty great honestly and it's beautifully directed by Danny Boyle.

7.5/10
 
Jodie Comer was surprisingly the weakest actor in this. She just overacted a lot of her scenes.

Alfie Williams was excellent, though.
 
have-a-nice-weekend-v0-9xgtz691c78f1.png
 
Am I the only one who feels slightly mislead by the marketing and early plot synopsises regarding a few elements?
I feel like the story was presented to us as "Father and son travels out into the mainland and discover secrets about the virus and what has happened with it." While we as the viewers get to see some new forms of infected, Jaime is already familiar with both the crawling adult babies and the Alphas and explains all about it to Spike. I was kinda hoping maybe that some of these new infected would be a surprise to them and that they would learn the dangers of these new infected along with us - leading to more tension. Instead it's just kinda "oh these guys are slow and crawl, just shoot the neck" and "these guys are fast and strong just run from them".

I also feel like the role of the swedish NATO soldiers was different to what I thought it would be. I assumed (not sure if this was based on actual stuff we heard OR speculation) they were sent in on a mission maybe to check what was happening (after years of ignoring Britain) but instead we get a throwaway line about how their boat apparently sank off the coast? Seems like a clumsy situation and considering their weapons and armor (and knowing about the infected) it did feel like most of them died rather easy all things considered.
 
I think in the end, I would say Days is best, then Years and then Weeks. No offense to Weeks, but that's a fairly standard zombie breakout movie. One that's well done, sure. But Days and Years are more character dramas that take place within an apocalyptic setting, and are just more rich movies for me.
 
I think in the end, I would say Days is best, then Years and then Weeks. No offense to Weeks, but that's a fairly standard zombie breakout movie. One that's well done, sure. But Days and Years are more character dramas that take place within an apocalyptic setting, and are just more rich movies for me.
Yeah I would agree with that ranking. No offense to the guy who directed 28 Weeks Later but he's no Danny Boyle. I also saw some video with Garland where he didn't necessarily throw shade on 28 Weeks Later but he said something along the lines of them being very excited about 28 Days, it was a passion project and with the sequel the catalyst wasn't "let's make this because we really want to" it was "let's make this because the first one made money".
 
I saw it last night. I liked it a lot, even if a few moments felt weird (and not in the way they were supposed to). Of course, that ending… which I would call a “pre-credits scene.” I don’t know how I feel about that. But overall, it’s a very interesting movie with great performances by Alfie Williams, Jodie Comer, Ray Fiennes and ATJ. I definitely liked it better than 28 Weeks Later and I’m not entirely sure but I feel like it kinda just pretended that movie didn’t happen lol.
 
I have looked up some stuff that explains the ending a bit better. Plenty of videos on this, but I will summarize:

Obviously, Jimmy is the child from the beginning. But his visual design is based on Jimmy Savile, who I never heard of before I saw the movie and I fear part of the response by many will in part cause we don't know who that is.

Essentially, he was like a UK Mr. Rogers who hosted shows on BBC for years and was an icon to children. He died in 2011, but after he died it was revealed he was a monster and a predator. Somewhere over 300 victims ranging from kids to the elderly. So, since the world fell in this world by 2002, this world wouldn't have been alerted to Savile's evil.

Now, when kid Jimmy is watching a TV, he is watching Teletubbies and his cult goons have the various Teletubby colors for their track suits. Also, Spike before going on his voyage has a Power Ranger toy. So the goons having garish colors and fighting like Power Rangers sort of combines both Jimmy's and Spike's childhoods. Spike put it away before his journey, but this group being like living Power Rangers is clearly going to make him go with this group, and there def is a message about maturity and not having parental figures growing up that Jimmy won't have had. Also the Savile reference likely hints at this group probably preying on Spike's good nature for so form of evil means.

I am not saying anyone has to like the ending, and I was really lost like everyone. But these details do help it make more sense in context and when Garland is saying part 2 is about the nature of evil, I can see where the thematic hand off for the scene comes in and how it makes a bit more sense in full context. Maybe this should have been a post credits scene instead though.
 
I really like a lot of individual parts, but I don't think I like the film on the whole. The Jimmy portion of the ending is not something I had issue with.
 

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