‘28 Years Later’ Is Full Of Ideas, But Light On Execution

It’s not particularly surprising that director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland wanted to revisit the world of 28 Days Later. After all, this already highly influential movie where a literal rage virus is unleashed that turns half the population into undead monsters and sends the other half into the depths of depravity has taken on another meaning altogether post-COVID (or really, still COVID).

After a middling follow-up in the 2000s, 28 Years Later is the third film in this extremely sporadic franchise and the beginning of a new trilogy in this zombie universe. And while it’s an overall promising and entertaining start, Boyle and Garland’s return to their patient zero of the 21st century zombie craze is deeply unwieldy and messy.

28 Years Later takes place… well, you can guess how long after the original and follows a remote group of survivors living on an island connected to the Scottish mainland. A select few venture out, including Jaime (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and his son Spike (Afie Williams), where they discover the virus has evolved substantially.

However, when Spike discovers his mother Isla (Jodie Comer) is afflicted with a mystery disease, they set out to find a doctor that can hopefully fix her affliction in a world overrun by undeath and rot.

28 Years Later is a messy, entertaining affair

Like most legacy sequels following up on an iconic film, 28 Years Later is extremely messy. Its many individual ideas are interesting, but they rarely cohere in a way that makes a lot of sense. It’s part exploration on an enduring community with tinges of COVID and Brexit commentary, part road-trip movie and part full-on infected splatfest across its relatively short runtime.

Part of the film’s scatterbrained story is likely due to the fact that it’s only the first act of a new trilogy. It’s a little odd to me that 28 Years Later doesn’t stand on its own more given how much history it already has to build on, seemingly promising many key plot points in planned films, and that many of its new additions to the franchise lore are surprisingly rote.

It doesn’t help that the actual content and direction of the film is a mess, too. Danny Boyle has long been known for a somewhat frenetic filmmaking style that worked excellently with the camcorder aesthetic of 28 Days Later and the heroin-infused nightmare world of Trainspotting.

I appreciated that the film followed its predecessor by shooting primarily on an iPhone 15 Max (it looks great for that!) but the direction and the editing of the film is extremely messy. Many of Boyle’s decisions seem to directly contradict the pace that he’s going for, and it’s occasionally unclear exactly what’s happening in the action of any given scene. Some filmmaking decisions truly baffled me, while others had me admiring the beauty of what Boyle was able to achieve as a director.

A lot to live up to with not much meat on the bones

Thankfully, Boyle’s talent with directing actors hasn’t waned at all. 14-year-old Alfie Williams is a superstar in 28 Years Later, with his character being the eyes through which we see this new incarnation of the world. There’s some pretty gnarly stuff Williams has to do in this film, but he handles it all with an evolving sense of confidence and remarkable emotional depth for such a young performer.

Jodie Comer does a lot with a little as Isla, and I found myself wishing for more of her character – however, her and Williams are incredible scene partners in a surprisingly poignant third act. Meanwhile, Aaron Taylor-Johnson is solid as Spike’s stern father Jamie, but the potential highlight of the film is an iodine-covered Ralph Fiennes as the slightly insane but still highly proficient Dr. Ian Kelson.

These characters more than make up for the faults of 28 Years Later. Where the original 2002 film felt like a real shot in the arm for the zombie genre, this latest entry feels measurably more by the books. It’s clear that Boyle and Garland still care greatly about the world they created together and it’s good fun to see what they get up to, but it’s easy to wish that there was a bit more meat on the bones.

★★★

28 Years Later is in cinemas now.