28 Weeks Later

I watched '28 Weeks Later' last week. This is the Danny Boyle produced follow up to the Danny Boyle 'directed' '28 Days Later'.

I loved '28 Days Later'. In fact I would go so far as to say it is one of those rare movies that I consider or remember almost every day. The dystopian vision of a Great Britain torn apart within days by a the 'Rage' virus irked something in me; I often reflect on the empty London streets or the point where you see Manchester in flames as it is approached on the M1. The idea that our society could be as fragile as depicted. And that without the framework of law and order our morality becomes a mirage is is a bit of a theme of interest for me in recent times. It has, in a small part, influenced my thoughts on extremism which in turn has made me update my own liberal views on how to order and conduct society.

So. I am sorry to report that '28 Weeks Later' is a disappointment to me on almost every level. Where '28 days' excelled in an implied back story to push the vision of a dying Britain, '28 Weeks' very obviously dictates the full scenario; this being a Britain being 'resettled' by an American led NATO task force. The violence and terror shown in the first film, although pretty full on, was in pace with the rest of the film. The violence in '28 Weeks' is simply silly (a helicopter cutting a swathe of people down with its blades) and is there to satiate the standard horror film expectations. Robert Carlyle was kinda predictable and the two kids far too posh to be allowed on screen. It plays to as many lowest common denominators as possible; consequently it doesn't really have its own identity or the understated intelligence and ethos that marked '28 Days' out.

Many commentators, including Mark Kermode (the BBC film critic), believe '28 Weeks' to be a well made film making a great political point. Mark says "the film knowingly evokes the ongoing battles of Iraq, with the peacekeeping forces turning out to be every bit as dangerous and destructive as the insurgent infection they are struggling to contain.... To assume that the Americans are somehow complicit in and to blame for the daily slaughter of innocents in Iraq is both a dangerous simplification of the situation and an affront to the ordinary people in Iraq being murdered by these, usually foreign (and not American) psychopaths. It is also symptomatic of our lack of understanding and interest in what is really happening beyond our cosy world. To create a juvenile piece of work such as '28 Weeks' and then make a half arsed socio-political point, that plays again to the lowest common denominator - 'anti Americanism', sums up the thinking behind just another lackluster movie and also maybe our modern malaise as we slide ever so slowly into oblivion.

See here for Kermode's article - http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2073279,00.html

And this chap's review is good also -
http://paulbensblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/28-weeks-later-review.html

And another here also -
http://www.chutry.wordherders.net/wp/?p=1640

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