28 Weeks Later (2007) - It's Essentially Jurrassic Park with Zombies

My kid and I watched 28 Days Later ages ago, and considering the 28 Years Later movie is coming out, thought we should catch up and watch the second one.  If you don't know, these movies were arguably the catalyst for the zombie craze that came out over the last decade or so. 

While the first one shows a couple people reacting to England under siege by face-eating sprinters, this one shows what life is like in London after they get things under control. Kinda. I mean, they have part of London locked off as a quarantine zone and start allowing a trickle of people back in. Two kids break through the zone and go home to get some things and run into their mother, who their father assumed was dead since he saw her get attacked by zombies at the beginning of the film. However, she seems okay-ish. The army takes her to a locked room for examination and suddenly we have an outbreak again. Now we have a couple people reacting to England under siege by face-eating sprinters again but with a twist. Now the Army wants to kill them too! 

The first act of the movie is interesting as we try to reconstruct the country, but after the infection hits its another 'run away or get slaughtered' gorefest we expected. It reminded me of Jurrasic Park, where an illusion of safety was quickly removed and the key point is keeping these two kids safe. 

The leads are strong, with a younger Jeremy Renner and Rose Byrne doing their best to keep these kids safe. Robert Carlyle has a pivotal role as the kids' father, who ends up being the most tragic figure I've seen in a movie in a long time. Warning: This movie came out when the Paul Greengrass Bourne movies were popular, so there is way too much shaky-cam, frenetic filmmaking going on where the viewer has little idea what is actually happening. If you can get past that you'll be okay.

The one huge issue with this movie is the amount of conveniences.  Spoiler: The army is absolutely incompetent. The kids happen to break out to visit their home where they bump into their mother, who happens to be the one person out of millions that can be infected and not turn, then that woman is sent to a locked-down room where there is absolutely no security so her husband can conveniently waltz in and, though she clearly hasn't bathed or brushed her teeth in weeks and has a huge open sore on her lip, open-mouth kisses her. He conveniently has the strength of Hercules and singlehandedly runs amok through a secured building and infects dozens of people. The army locks hundreds of people in a basement that is easily broken into so a massacre can occur.  Also, considering the size of London, there is one alpha zombie that really travels fast. This zombie is in every pivotal scene from The West End to Buckingham Palace to Wembley Stadium to be in every critical scene, including the ending.

A random stranger's opinion - It's exactly what you'd expect - a solid zombie horror movie. However, if you think it will break new ground or add much to the superior original, you'll be disappointed.

Grade: C+