28 Years Later follows the same formula as 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later. I wonder why they skip months, but that’s how it is. Prior to watching it, I had only heard pretty negative stuff about it. Wait, that is an understatement. I had only heard that it was a disaster and not worthy of belonging in the franchise. And let me tell you, 28 Years Later is a strange film to say the least. I think they wanted to do too much with it, and it seems extremely pretentious at times.
There is a straight enough storyline, really, but they have mixed it up with some footage that I don’t really understand. Stuff that doesn’t make any sense at all. Maybe it’s because I’m not clever enough, but on the other hand, if you make a flick too clever for its audience, it’s an automatic fail, isn’t it?
The main plot starts off with some kind of zombies invading a home, and the parents scream to the son to run and flee the scene—pretty standard stuff. Then we skip ahead 28 years, and we find ourselves in a small village on a small island. The villagers have barricaded themselves and are only on occasion allowed to cross over to the mainland. A boy and his father do just that. The boy is really too young for the voyage. At least that’s what everybody says. He shouldn’t be going on such a journey for another year or two if you listen to the townspeople.
I’m not sure why the wander to the mainland either. It’s not to gather food or to hunt wild animals. It seems to be a becoming-a-man ritual, and the father is very proud of his son when they return, as he killed one or two of the zombies with his bow and arrows. The son, however, cannot really enjoy his new reputation as he doesn’t want to pretend that he’s better than he really is. And the truth is that he froze on the occasion, and they almost died.
That is about as far as the normal story goes. There are some character-building moments when his father is cheating on his wife, who is very sick. The boy takes her to the mainland to find a legendary doctor. Well, it’s a long, messy story.
All in all, it’s a story where it’s hinted that there are some existential undertones. It’s never really out in the open, but as I interpret it, that’s kind of the only way it can exist. 28 Years Later tries to comment on what’s right or wrong and how to deal with moral dilemmas. It’s a surprisingly uneventful film, but it looks fairly nice. The craftsmanship is actually pretty good. It’s not particularly exciting or suspenseful, and the ending, oh the ending… What were they thinking? It’s a disaster that would have ruined the movie even if it were a really good one.
Apparently, there are one or two sequels in the works already. Even though I can see how to continue the storyline where 28 Years Later left off, I’m not sure if anyone really should.
