“A mixture of monsters, zombies and apocalyptic horror that never bores”: the critic of the BBC to “28 years later”

Three characters in the movie "28 years later"a woman carrying a baby, a young teenager and a middle -aged man. They walk between trees adorned with human femures.

- Author, Caryn James
- Author's title, BBC Culture*
43 minutes

The writer Alex Garland and director Danny Boyle meet for a continuation of his 2002 classic. He has visual style, terrifying enemies and a performance by Ralph Fiennes that the show is stealing.

He movies 28 Years Later (“28 years later”) It is partly a horror movie and zombie apocalypse, partly the exercise of building a medieval world and partly a sentimental story about the family.

But on the other hand, the most effective, is a jungle trip to dementia as “the heart of the darkness” by Joseph Conrad.

This combination is not necessarily bad, the pieces work very well in this sequel of “28 days later”, the great 2002 film about a virus that decimates London.

The new film is one of the most anticipated of the year, especially because the creators of the original, director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland.

It is a flash of brilliance with Boyle's visual talent, Garland's script and a scathing performance by Ralph Fiennes, whose character appears towards the middle of the film and, unexpectedly, becomes his inconsolated soul.

But, just as it happens with Frankenstein's monster, this seams are noticed and, although it never bores, it does not reach as attractive as it could have been.

WARNING: This note reveals parts of the film's plot.

Return

Of course, much has changed in the 23 years after the original film.

Boyle, which at that time was recognized by independent films such as Trainspottingwon an Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire.

Garland, a novelist and screenwriter at that time (“28 days was his first film), he is now director of Political Dye Films, including Civil ofr.

The main problem in “28 years later” is that Garland's political bias and Boyle's commercial instincts do not necessarily mix well.

The director of — Photo foot, Jodie Eating says that Boyle was key to helping her mentor to understand the nuances of island's disease.

However, the world they have created is specific and impressive, starting with an island where people have survived isolating themselves from the English continent – it still ravaged by the plague – already that it is reached through a road that can only be crossed during the low tide.

It is a community that could have existed in the Middle Ages. Without the resources of the 21st century, they manufacture their own arrows as weapons and use wood as fuel.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson's performance as Jamie, an angry but responsible husband, is impressively solid.

Jodie eating plays his wife Isla, who is prostrated in bed and sometimes razes in this community that has no doctor than the diagnosis.

During most time, eating has to look unfortunate. Island can barely remember why Jamie is about to take her son, Spike (Alfie Williams), on a ritual trip to her homeland.

It is time for him to make his first slaughter of an infected creature, a survival tactic that he will need to know.

Cilian Murhpy in a desolate London in — Photo foot, The original film, “28 days later,” is full of iconic images like the character of Cillian Murphy walking through a desolate London.

“Visceral” action

Boyle takes full advantage of his shocking technical skills in the hunting scenes of father and son, which are pure action and zombie terror, full of kinetic chamber movements and fast cuts while Jamie and Spike run through the forest, shooting arrows and trying to get away from the infected.

The creatures are not officially zombies, no matter how much they seem and act as such, but victims of the same virus transmitted by the blood that made people fill in anger in the original film, making them clumsy melbers and with infected brains.

Decades later they have changed.

Some, called Slow-Lows, seem hippos crawling on all four legs.

Others are faster and more intelligent than ever.

All are naked, covered with earth and throw blood geysers when an arrow reaches them. The danger feels visceral.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Alfie Williams escape a horde of zombies in — Photo foot, In “28 years later,” Boyle focuses on a new group of protagonists that includes Aaron Taylor-Johnson.

Some elegant details make a short comments about this world in conflict.

A rough and sinister recording of 1915 of the poem is heard Boots Rudyard Kipling, on infantry soldiers (the same used in the movie's trailer) that is heard about war -recurrent images, from the crusades to the world wars of the twentieth century.

The text at the beginning of the film tells us that Europe managed to keep the virus, putting it in quarantine in Great Britain, which has been abandoned by the rest of the world.

French and Swedes ships patrol the waters to enforce quarantine.

But that political subject politically, which could have resonated so much with the question of current isolationism, ends up not leading anywhere.

Spike, whose story is so central, is a bland character. A narrative thread of the child and his mother tries to highlight the emotion and includes a turn on an infected pregnant woman who is ridiculous even for a horror movie.

And, as separates from the original in all aspects except in its original story, during much of this section the film turns out to be a more shocking variation at the visual level and less emotionally rich from The Last of Us .

Part of a trilogy

Ralph Fiennes in the — Photo foot, Ralph Fiennes' character enters the second half of the film and never releases it, says the critic of the BBC Caryn James

The film acquires a little silence, a more psychological tone and becomes infinitely better when Ralph Fiennes arrives.

This is where Boyle and Garland really step forward and reinvent the genre.

The character of Fiennes, Kelton, lives in his hometown and is a doctor. Spike believes that he could help his mother, while Jamie states that everyone knows that Kelton is crazy.

Fiennes plays it shaved, a paper scarf and a skin that seems orange.

“Excuse my appearance. I paint with iodine,” he says politely when he is first with Spike and Island.

“The virus doesn't like iodine at all.”

(It did cause me curiosity how I had achieved so much iodine after all those apocalyptic years, but you don't have to be pedantic about it).

And shows them the beautifully designed temple, with high columns made of bones elegantly arranged next to a tower of skulls.

It is, he explains, a memento I died, a reminder that we all die.

Each skull reminds him that he was once part of a living person in flesh and blood, not a monster.

He is chilling, yes, but Fiennes also presents Kelton as a kind man, with deep compassion, who replies that there are no longer hospitals where a sick person can be treated as an island.

He is the most human person on the screen, which is largely due to the vivid and complex action of Fiennes.

One of the strengths of the film is that you can leave debating how crazy Kelton is really.

“28 years later” is the first of a new projected trilogy.

The second part, written by Garland and directed by Nia Dacosta, has already been shot and its premiere is scheduled for January.

This is called “28 years later: the temple of the bones”, an excellent sign taking into account how the character of Fiennes comes out with his in this imaginative film, but no.

*You can find the original version of this review, published by BBC Culture, here.