Zombie films are cool. Zombie films set in an abandoned Britain are so beyond cool it makes The Fonz looks positively dowdy. In ’28 Days Later’ Danny Boyle managed to make a haunting, atmospheric and powerful film about an outbreak of virus in Britain that turns all those infected into rabid maniacs who live only to infect those that are uninfected. However, 28 Weeks Later isn’t quite up to the level of quality that ‘Days’ was.

The film has a superb opening with Robert Carlyle in hiding from the infected with his wife and several other people in a boarded up house in the countryside. After the infected discover them, Robert Carlyle abandons his wife to the infected and exits stage left, pursued by a hoard of ravenous beasties. The shot of hundreds of infected pouring over a hill is stunningly memorable. However, following this the film rapidly goes downhill. Britain has apparently been cleansed of the Rage virus after all the infected starved to death. Cue a small number of people being allowed back in to Britain. While 28 Days Later had a stellar cast featuring Christopher Ecclestone, Cillian Murphy and Brendan Gleeson, 28 Weeks Later can boast…Robert Carlyle. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a great actor (hell he was the best thing about The World Is Not Enough!) but after he gets infected by his wife (who appears to have survived the infected attack at the start of the film, but still carries the virus) there’s no real acting chops with which to carry the film. This problem is confounded by the two kids, who are the main characters in the film, as they simply can’t act to the standard required.

The plot of the film really doesn’t have the quality of the first either. It meanders for the first half an hour with little to no direction or indication where it’s heading. Furthermore, the infected aren’t in this for nearly anywhere near long enough. While they’re a constant threat from right at the beginning of ‘Days’, ‘Weeks’ just doesn’t have the sheer terror of the first one, that sense of being totally alone in the country. It’s a shame because if done right, this could’ve been pretty fucking cool! Instead we get an American G.I, a doctor and some pathetic kids trying to escape, not from the infected, but from the American Army! It totally downgrades the threat of the infected that we got from the first film! In fact, I think my major complaint about this film is that it’s too “American”. The first film had this charm to it, a sense of subtlety and ambience that was typically British. ‘Weeks’ is all over the top, full of American troops and cliché’s like “We must save these kids, they hold the key to curing Rage!” and such bollocks. It even has a nice bit of T&A just for us lads.

It’s not that ‘Weeks’ is a bad film, far from it. It’s still entertaining and the opening 10 minutes are immensely re-watchable. Its problem is that it could’ve been so much more! Hopefully if there’s a third part to the story it’ll be by Danny Boyle and re-capture some of the magic of the first one.

Final Rating: 7/10