Jodie Comer shines in 28 Years Later but I think Danny Boyle's new zombie sequel has major issues - review

As a huge 28 Days Later fan, I had been incredibly excited for the release of Danny Boyle’s new film but it failed to impress. THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS.

The Lancashire-born director changed the game for zombie movies back in 2002, with a rage virus that created fast-running infected that would turn within ten seconds of being bitten. The first film was fast-paced throughout and Cillian Murphy’s Jim was outstanding.

The second film, 28 Weeks Later, answered questions left from the first, with the audience told that infected would starve to death after five weeks and the introduction of ‘carriers’ who could be infected without presenting symptoms. We learned that the virus had spread to mainland Europe and that it could be passed on through saliva, not just blood.

28 Years Later promised a glimpse into the virus almost three decades on, with mainland Britain still under quarantine and new mutations posing a threat.

But, the new film had contradictions straight away. We were told the virus had somehow been eradicated from Europe and driven back to Britain - with this later confirmed by a Swedish soldier who ended up in Britain. He had a normal girlfriend with lip fillers and an iPhone and discussed how he should have been a delivery driver instead of a soldier.

The new film starts with children in Scotland watching the Teletubbies on television, before infected cause havoc in the house. A little boy, Jimmy, escapes and the film then fast forwards 28 years to an island off the coast of Northumberland, Holy Island.

Here, a group of survivors have created a community - with a school, houses and shop - and are able to access the mainland by a sea path during low tide.

The film centres around 12-year-old Spike (Alfie Williams), his father Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and mother Isla (Jodie Comer). Jamie takes Spike to the mainland for the first time, where they find fat, slug-like mutated infected and Alphas - who are much larger and much harder to kill than other ‘zombies’ - and an infected left hanging upside down alive.

After fighting off many infected, including an Alpha who figures out how to get to the island before being killed by guards in the watch tower, Jamie and Spike return home. But, when Spike sees his father cheating on his poorly mother, he decides to run away with her to find Dr Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) on the mainland.

Jodie Comer’s character, Isla, has an undiagnosed illness that sees her get confused and angry, often calling Spike ‘dad’ and being in a great deal of pain. Spike hopes that Dr Kelson can help his mother and sets off on a tricky journey to find him.

The action in the first half is great and the pair struggle to fight off hoards of infected in a gas-filled petrol station. Saved by Swedish solider, Erik, they continue their journey and later come across a pregnant infected.

Bizarrely, Isla helps the pregnant zombie give birth and they hold hands. The baby is born uninfected but the mother quickly turns violent and is killed by Erik. After Erik is murdered by an Alpha, who takes his head as a trophy, Isla, Spike and the baby are rescued by an iodine-covered Dr Kelson, who tells Isla she has cancer.

Kelson has created a ‘bone temple’, created using the bones and skulls of dead infected and humans and he also explains that the baby was protected from infection by the mother’s placenta - which seems like a pretty rubbish explanation.

After explaining that he cannot cure Isla, Dr Kelson sedates Alfie and kills his mother as a kindness. Alfie then adds her to skull to the top of the temple before taking the baby back to Holy Island and deciding to live on the mainland alone.

The film felt like a huge disappointment, with all the fast-paced infected action taking place in the first half and the mutations being pretty rubbish and contradictory.

Boyle needed to move the franchise along and I was hoping for new mutations but I had hoped for mutations relating to the carriers in 28 Weeks Later, not fat, slug-like zombies and weird Alphas. How did they not starve like mentioned in 28 Weeks Later?

The second half of the film truly felt like a completely different movie and while Jodie Comer was absolutely incredible, it felt like an emotional drama not a horror film.

Her death was bizarre too because how can her son have been so protective of her throughout the whole film but barely react to her being euthanised? A cocktail of morphine isn’t going to make you forget about the death in the days ahead.

The film contradicted the previous two in so many ways too. The second film saw the virus rage again due to ‘carriers’ who were infected but not showing symptoms, but this safe haven of Holy Island just accepted a baby born from an infected with no question?

Spike could barely hit a target with his dad on his first trip to the mainland but managed to get his poorly mum all the way to the doctor AND drop a baby back off by himself? And, there are very limited medical supplies but doctor Kelson has an unlimited supply of iodine?

And, an Alpha figured out how to get to Holy Island but there was no other threat to the safe haven again in the film?

All this aside, the ending is what truly confused me. We see Sir Crystal Jimmy - the child watching the Teletubbies at the start of the film - as an adult, with a gang of of what appear to be cult members.

Reportedly based on Jimmy Saville, the character - played by Jack O’Connell - is completely bizarre but does leave me concerned for Spike. Remember the infected hanging upside down earlier in the film? He had ‘Jimmy’ carved into his chest.

With Cillian Murphy expected to return as Jim in the next instalment, the names being similar seems an odd choice to me too but I guess the Jimmy Saville link needed to be obvious.

Even though the ending is incredibly strange, I will say it has left me eager to see The Bone Temple. But, if I were to give 28 Years Later an overall score out of of ten, six is as high as I can go.

It earns points for the beautiful cinematography, stunning shots of Northumberland and brilliant actors, and as a standalone film it was honestly fine. But, as a 28 Days Later sequel, it failed to impress.