28 Weeks Later

I have just returned from my first viewing of 28 Weeks Later, and I was not disappointed. In fact, I was really impressed, I think they did a great job with it. I do have to clarify that I went in expecting to be entertained, but did not expect to see anything particularly novel. This pessimism stems from how much I loved the gritty, dark mood of the first, and my feeling that a sequel would be nothing more than an attempt to cash in off of the original's success. Contrary to my expectations, 28 Weeks captured the mood of the original, and explored the idea of zombie apocalypse from a fresh perspective.

*Warning*: Spoilers

Despite my overall positive reaction, there were certainly a number of details that I didn't particularly appreciate. One that jumped out at me was the recycling of the 'two-handed-eye-gouge-death-grip' attack. Now, I did think it was fantastic in 28 Days Later. The emotional charge of the imminent rapes, the characters' confusion, and the ever-intensifying race for survival built it up to being an awesome climactic moment. However, in 28 Weeks, it simply came off as a cheap bit of gore, and seemed to be turning into some kind of patented zombie attack move.

[ZOMBIE INTELLIGENCE]

Another item that really didn't do it for me was the fact that the dad, Robert Carlyle, seemed to turn into some kind of 'smart' zombie. Yes, he had the rage and all, but he seemed to be able to pick and choose when to run blindly after fresh meat. Despite the infection burning through his veins, he was able to sneak along after the survivors, take cover from the fire bombing, and stalk the survivors halfway across London before ambushing them in the pitch black darkness of a subway tunnel.

[ZOMBIE PHYSIOLOGY]

This event is even more confusing after they made a point of saying the the infected couldn't see any better in the dark than the rest of us. In all fairness, we certainly do not have any clear idea of how much intelligence victims will retain, in the event of an actual zombie outbreak. However, within the constraints of this film's scenario, I think it broke from the believable.

[NON-CONVENTIONAL WEAPONS]

Now, for the integrity of the journal, I should consider the next item a complaint, but I honestly enjoyed it way too much. The moment I am speaking of is when our pilot buddy, Harold Perrineau, turns his chopper into a zombie-dicing blender of destruction. It was awesome. I do not advocate attempting this maneuver in real-life, but I'd drink to anyone crazy enough to chase that kind of glory.

[POST-APOCALYPSE RESETTLEMENT]

Despite these few annoying details, the overall story was quite interesting. The idea of resettlement and reconstruction after a catastrophic epidemic is one that isn't given enough attention (A notable exception being the novel, World War Z, by Max Brooks). As was demonstrated by the premise of this movie, there is much to be said for reclaiming surviving goods and infrastructure. However, as the movie also demonstrates, there is considerable risk of re-igniting the outbreak. Might it have been better to simply melt the hot zone down a glassy nuclear wasteland? A horrific sacrifice, no doubt, but perhaps worth the reassurance of the infection's eradication?

[TRIAGE]

This leads another interesting topic broached in the film: triage. As the outbreak re-ignited, the commanding officer went to greater and greater lengths to contain the infection. Despite the obvious ethical and moral dilemmas presented, this is a decision that any outbreak survivor would eventually face, at least at some level or another. Granted, very few of us will have to live with the nightmare of ordering hundreds, or even thousands, to their deaths, but any of us could easily end up in a position of having to decide whether a friend or loved one can be saved or not. This point was nicely illustrated at the beginning, with Carlyle's character being cut off from his wife, seeing her pleading for him to return, and then choosing to flee. I think the character's actions were supposed to have been motivated by fear, and not a cold vote for triage, but I believe the point still applies. He may have been a coward, and may have had a chance if he'd just fought back, but I'm not going to be the one to judge his actions.

All in all, I think the film is worth viewing. I didn't catch any especially noteworthy zombie survival techniques, but I think the story succeeds in broaching some broader topics for consideration.