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bending_sickleBefore I discuss 28 Weeks Later, let's take a look at what its predecessor, 28 Days Later accomplished, shall we?
Position in the "100 Scariest Movies Ever"
Need a refresher? Watch it on YouTube. ;)
(YouTube + YouTubeX = OTP)
Now, ze review:
1) The main theme score is wonderful. Absolutely gorgeous and versatile. Although I have a feeling it's from the original, so no points. (Listen here. It's either "Godspeed You" by Black Emperor" or "In the House(In a Hearbeat)" by John Murphy.)
2) The first few scenes are amazing and wonderful and everything the rest of the movie should have been. I mean, you've got loving couples, post-apocalypsis hiding, ladida-oh shit! moments, people being cowardly and brave and basically fundamentally people... And that last "Oh shit, oh shit" shot? Priceless.
3) Robert Carlyle. Lost potential number two, through no fault of his own, really. His acting and his character are wonderfully human and complex. Then they go and ruin most of it, though the breif flashes of character later on in the movie are wasted, wasted I tell you, by the writers. There's so much they could have done with his character being just shy of being one of the masses. They mentioned a few things, gave a few flashes, showed some forward thinking in the character, only to have it shot down in a completely anti-climactic way. Shame on you.
4) Mr Sniper Doyle. The absolute best. His potential was used acceptably, though cheap shot at the end. (I think the name "Doyle"*** may just be a cursed hero name. Suckytude.)
5) When the viewer doesn't give a rat's ass about the main characters, there's something wrong with the movie.
6) Too short, not enough plot, too much running around.
7) What the fuck is it with the fucking army in these movies?
8) The budding and repressed geneticist in me was shaking its head so often it got sick.
9) Mr Mercutio / Oz guy / Lost's Michael: nice to see you, why are you such an ass? Heartless violence-lovin' bastard.
Point 3, RCarlyle's character Don, cont.:
In just the first few scenes of the movie, the prologue (i.e. before the 28 Days Later summary), we got the full spectrum of human emotion in Don's character. (This, btw, was, as I've said, the best part of the movie.) We saw him in love, aprehensive, thwackity-thwaking away at zombies... Then we got a whole boatload of humanity when he was too scared to help his wife and ran off to save himself. The conflicting emotions were wonderful: love, fear, regret, guilt, grief, desperation... The panicked little "oh shit, oh shit" quote when he makes it away from the hoard and starts to realize how precarious his survival is now is priceless and damn fine cinematography.
Later shots of him with his children, lying to them about how their mother died whilst having flashbacks to what really happened added a lot more to the weight of the character (and thus the scene) I didn't really care about the kids at all; my emotions were completely invested in Don.
When he's reunited with his wife, we get more conflicting emotions from him as he tries to appologize for leaving her to die. When he gets infected, it's not the normnal transformation. It seems to take longer and he seems more conscious of what's going on. It reminds me of how Goat in Doom, right before he bashes his brains out to prevent his turning into one of the beasts. The rage and wall-bashing didn't seem so much "infection-rage" but "raging against the dying of the light" sorta thing. I mean, you survive all that, get the bloody miracle of being reunited with your kids and then your wife and one little forgiving kiss fucks you over.
Zombie!Don doesn't act like a normal zombie either. Right off, when he lunges on his wife, it seems like a personal vendetta, not "grr, argh". Even the eye-popping seems human; violently angry human, not an animal ravaging. It wasn't a "rip and destroy" violence, but one meant to hurt. I felt pàrt of it was the old guilt and the anger at her showing up to hound him with it, and anger at her infecting him. Then there's the continued personal vendetta against his children. He's mostly focused on getting at his kids - except that bit where it's more "infect everybody adn create chaos". He stalks, he hides, he avoids walls of fire very patiently... That is one serviously scary zombie dangerously near consciousness. We have proof of this, even, when he attacks the kids and gets flashes of his wife. He freaking pauses and desists his attack, right before the same anger that caused him to kill his wife makes him attack his daughter, whom he'd just seem as if she were his wife (flashback thingie).
The most interesting and complex human, the scariest zombie, and what do the writers do? Kill him off much too easily and very little else.
This is what we calll "Waaaa-sted po-teeen-tiii-al."
* 28 Days Later graffitti**
** There's probably too many letters there. It's like bananananana.
*** Francis Alan Doyle, on Angel. That's all I'm sayin'.
Position in the "100 Scariest Movies Ever"
Need a refresher? Watch it on YouTube. ;)
(YouTube + YouTubeX = OTP)
Now, ze review:
1) The main theme score is wonderful. Absolutely gorgeous and versatile. Although I have a feeling it's from the original, so no points. (Listen here. It's either "Godspeed You" by Black Emperor" or "In the House(In a Hearbeat)" by John Murphy.)
2) The first few scenes are amazing and wonderful and everything the rest of the movie should have been. I mean, you've got loving couples, post-apocalypsis hiding, ladida-oh shit! moments, people being cowardly and brave and basically fundamentally people... And that last "Oh shit, oh shit" shot? Priceless.
3) Robert Carlyle. Lost potential number two, through no fault of his own, really. His acting and his character are wonderfully human and complex. Then they go and ruin most of it, though the breif flashes of character later on in the movie are wasted, wasted I tell you, by the writers. There's so much they could have done with his character being just shy of being one of the masses. They mentioned a few things, gave a few flashes, showed some forward thinking in the character, only to have it shot down in a completely anti-climactic way. Shame on you.
4) Mr Sniper Doyle. The absolute best. His potential was used acceptably, though cheap shot at the end. (I think the name "Doyle"*** may just be a cursed hero name. Suckytude.)
5) When the viewer doesn't give a rat's ass about the main characters, there's something wrong with the movie.
6) Too short, not enough plot, too much running around.
7) What the fuck is it with the fucking army in these movies?
8) The budding and repressed geneticist in me was shaking its head so often it got sick.
9) Mr Mercutio / Oz guy / Lost's Michael: nice to see you, why are you such an ass? Heartless violence-lovin' bastard.
Point 3, RCarlyle's character Don, cont.:
In just the first few scenes of the movie, the prologue (i.e. before the 28 Days Later summary), we got the full spectrum of human emotion in Don's character. (This, btw, was, as I've said, the best part of the movie.) We saw him in love, aprehensive, thwackity-thwaking away at zombies... Then we got a whole boatload of humanity when he was too scared to help his wife and ran off to save himself. The conflicting emotions were wonderful: love, fear, regret, guilt, grief, desperation... The panicked little "oh shit, oh shit" quote when he makes it away from the hoard and starts to realize how precarious his survival is now is priceless and damn fine cinematography.
Later shots of him with his children, lying to them about how their mother died whilst having flashbacks to what really happened added a lot more to the weight of the character (and thus the scene) I didn't really care about the kids at all; my emotions were completely invested in Don.
When he's reunited with his wife, we get more conflicting emotions from him as he tries to appologize for leaving her to die. When he gets infected, it's not the normnal transformation. It seems to take longer and he seems more conscious of what's going on. It reminds me of how Goat in Doom, right before he bashes his brains out to prevent his turning into one of the beasts. The rage and wall-bashing didn't seem so much "infection-rage" but "raging against the dying of the light" sorta thing. I mean, you survive all that, get the bloody miracle of being reunited with your kids and then your wife and one little forgiving kiss fucks you over.
Zombie!Don doesn't act like a normal zombie either. Right off, when he lunges on his wife, it seems like a personal vendetta, not "grr, argh". Even the eye-popping seems human; violently angry human, not an animal ravaging. It wasn't a "rip and destroy" violence, but one meant to hurt. I felt pàrt of it was the old guilt and the anger at her showing up to hound him with it, and anger at her infecting him. Then there's the continued personal vendetta against his children. He's mostly focused on getting at his kids - except that bit where it's more "infect everybody adn create chaos". He stalks, he hides, he avoids walls of fire very patiently... That is one serviously scary zombie dangerously near consciousness. We have proof of this, even, when he attacks the kids and gets flashes of his wife. He freaking pauses and desists his attack, right before the same anger that caused him to kill his wife makes him attack his daughter, whom he'd just seem as if she were his wife (flashback thingie).
The most interesting and complex human, the scariest zombie, and what do the writers do? Kill him off much too easily and very little else.
This is what we calll "Waaaa-sted po-teeen-tiii-al."
* 28 Days Later graffitti**
** There's probably too many letters there. It's like bananananana.
*** Francis Alan Doyle, on Angel. That's all I'm sayin'.
