Filmspotting #160: 28 Weeks Later

Filmspotting split violently on the follow-up to 28 Days Later... If you've seen it, let us know where you stand!

Re: Filmspotting #160: 28 Weeks Later

Re: Filmspotting #160: 28 Weeks Later

I saw 28 weeks later Monday night and was split on the film, there seemed to be an equal amount for me to like a dislike. I’m not into zombie films and if anything I’m a bit of a wuss, which made the relentless nature of the film tough to take. The hyper editing and extra gore made me loose interest, mostly because I felt SEE-sick. As Sam said “ I had to ask myself if I was sitting too close to the screen, and I wasn’t sitting too close.” However, hyper-editing aside, I enjoyed the film’s grainy digital aesthetic and it’s claustrophobic nature.

What I found most interesting was the way Fresnadillo played with the moralizing of character’s decisions.  For the majority of the film I was mad at Fresnadillo for vilifying Robert Carlyle’s decision to leave his wife. Sure it wasn’t a heroic decision to make, but I didn’t feel I knew enough about the character to judge him for running during a zombie attack.  Yet by the end of the film it was revealed that Fresnadillo was not moralizing characters in the traditional horror movie fashion. In 28 weeks later, even a good decision at one time can be disastrous in the future.  I felt a little betrayed by my attachment too the kids at the end of the film, but on further inspection the twisted, uncertain moral compass the film processes, felt true to it’s Iraq allegory.

Did anyone notice the mention of Sanford and the image of the duck roaming London? Could this be a connection to Hot Fuzz?

Luke

28 Weeks Later (SPOILER)

"Filmspotting split violently on the follow-up to 28 Days Later"

I thought Adam wrote "Filmspotting SPIT violently on the follow-up to 28 Days Later."  I thought - wait, Adam, that was only you!

I'm more in line with Luke - I'm split myself.  I like the Iraq allegory.  The soldiers didn't need much of a push to abandon their own moral compass in favor of the military's - it took most of the soldiers only the moment to check that they heard the orders correctly to steel themselves to kill hordes of innocent people.   The whole change of atmosphere in Britain struck me too.  When the kids left the "green zone", the army treated them humanly.  Shortly after, the army didn't treat anybody humanly.  It reminds me of the downward spiral and hopelessness many feel towards Iraq.  I actually felt that sense of hopelessness while watching the movie.

 However, I had trouble buying some of the plot points.  As Adam mentioned on the show, I can't imagine that a "caretaker" would be able to get into the medical center's most locked down room.  And it made ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE that the father would be back to bite the kids at the end.  It's either an unbelieveable coinsidence or it's inconsistent with the infected's presence of mind.

 Also, the characters were a bit thin, the violence a bit over the top and hard to follow.  Though I have to say that the whole bit with the mother was interesting.

Who thought that the mother told the father that she still loved him so he would kiss her and become infected?  I come down on that side (probably my own revenge fantasy - sorry, Luke, but I condemn him) but I think it's ambiguous.

 Liz

Re: 28 Weeks Later (SPOILER)

I think you might have something there. I too questioned whether or not the wife planned the husband’s infection. It seemed entirely possible, especially with the mention of saliva as a way of infection, a few scenes before. 

Re: 28 Weeks Later (SPOILER)

Re: Filmspotting #160: 28 Weeks Later

OK, I avoided listening to the review until I saw the movie (which was last night) because I didn't want to accidentally catch any spoilers or otherwise inform my opinion on the film.  All I knew was that Adam loved it and Sam hated it.

So now that I've seen the film and listened to the review, I'm 90% with Adam on this one.  Sam, how IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, can you HATE this film and chastise it for being gory when you LOVED the ultimately unsatisfying, empty gore porn that is 300? This was quite possibly the one "zombie" film that had the most emotional impact on me, simply because it was so unrelenting and brutal.  It's very well-executed and takes full advantage of the universe set up in the first film.  I liken it to The Bourne Supremacy in certain respects, not just because of the Paul Greengrass-esque shaky-cam, but the quality of the use of the shaky-cam and how it heightens the tension in the story (perhaps United 93 would be a better Greengrass comparison based on what I've heard of it, but I don't know that I'm quite ready to sit down and watch that yet). 

28 Weeks Later may not be the "future cinema-verite" work of genius that Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men is but the fact that the camera refused to turn away from so much gave it a documentary feel that Boyle wasn't even quite able to capture with the digital video of the first film. 

However...

Adam... better than the first film?  Come on.  I will admit that I spent a good lot of the movie with my heart in my throat and even clutching my girlfriend's hand as hard as she was clutching mine, which didn't happen as much watching the first one.  But a lot of those scares were a little on the cheap side.  Done well, but still cheap.  It's like the argument I have with one of my best friends about the original and remake of Dawn of the Dead.  He hates the Romero original but loves the Zack Snyder remake (I prefer Romero, of course, but really enjoyed the remake) because the original is, according to him, boring.  He also didn't like 28 Days Later for similar reasons and I fully expect him to love this one.  I think it's more of a thrill ride but the original is a more intimate film, which I appreciate more than 28 Weeks' "bigger and badder sequel" take, as well-made as I think it was.

And the script was pretty lazy.  I agree with Sam that it was rather convenient that Robert Carlyle's character had access to everything in the compound, as was the fact that (SPOILER) he kept popping up all throughout the film wherever the kids were (END SPOILER). And that these kids with their crude escape plan managed to escape from a heavily guarded compound in broad daylight?  A little too much disbelief to suspend, even for me. 

And so help me if they do a 28 Months Later or whatever in Paris, I'm going to boycott it.  The bleakness that ended this one was a nice counterpoint to the ray of hope that ended the first one but those are really the only two satisfying ways to end a zombie film, really.  To make a third is pushing their luck way too far.  I can't imagine that they'd get away with it again, and I would still say this even if Boyle and Alex Garland got back on board for it.  It just shouldn't happen.

This film had great potential to go horribly horribly wrong but Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's directing pretty much saved it.  I think it's very well done.  Future viewings may change my mind but it resonated with me in a way that most horror films (and sequels especially) don't.  Rest assured, I have his first film near the top of my netflix queue and look forward to whatever his next project is.

Re: 28 Weeks Later (SPOILER)