"28 Weeks Later" is a gutsy bit of genre filmmaking which is more wholly satisfying than its predecessor. Still, Fresnadillo may also be admired for bucking convention, setting up Special Forces sniper Doyle (Jeremy Renner, "Dahmer," "North Country") as an ugly American and his helicopter pilot buddy Flynn (Harold Perrineau, "The Matrix Revolutions") as a victim then standing expectations on their ear. Don's ability to constantly cross Andy's path stretches believability just as Andy's 'disappearance' in a subway sequence is nonsensically convenient. Fresnadillo's London shares the desolation, military occupation and consecration of society's youngest found in the equally political "Children of Men." In many cases, the style of the film must compensate for weaknesses in story. In "Weeks," Fresnadillo uses the visceral techniques of closely cropped framing, warp speed editing, moody droning music and plain old splatter to shock the senses while engaging the mind with allegorical imagery like piles of biohazard bags on sidewalks and clouds of gas billowing down a city street. "28 Days Later" drew its dread from the unexpected speed of its zombies and the eerie emptiness of a world class city. Not much later, District 1's General Stone (Idris Elba, HBO's "The Wire") admits 'we have lost control,' and the remaining uninfected, including Scarlet, Andy and Tammy, must fight not only the enraged but the U.S. Secured to a hospital bed, Alice receives a visit from her guilty mate and one kiss later becomes his first victim. The eye color discrepancy, as it turns out, appears to act as immunity to the rage virus, but as Scarlet soon discovers, that does not prevent the survivor from being a carrier. Just guess who is waiting there for them. Don tells Andy and older sister Tammy (Imogen Poots, "V for Vendetta") about their loss and cries that there 'was nothing I could do,' but the very next day, after Andy worries he will forget his mother's face, the two slip past security to make their way home. Military nurse Scarlet (Rose Byrne, "Marie Antoinette") is agitated when she discovers the first 500 to return include Andy (newcomer Mackintosh Muggleton), a mere 12-year-old, but she also notes his different colored irises, an oddity inherited from his mother. declares Britain virus free after all the infected die off of starvation, the few survivors believed to all be quarantined. The house is under siege, and separated from his wife in an upstairs bedroom by a murderous zombie, Don cuts and runs, escaping by a window and running, running, running. But as she peers out from a barricaded window, she is pulled through the wall by a rabid group of infected. Loving couple Don and Alice hunker down in an elderly couple's country cottage along with a handful of others, including a young woman holding out hope for the return of her boyfriend. And while "28 Days" lost much of its power in its final act, its sequel is an incendiary critique of the U.S. led NATO force's quarantine and repopulate a protected District 1 with the refugeed teenage daughter and twelve-year-old son who return "28 Weeks Later." Cowriter (with Rowan Joffe and Jesús Olmo)/director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo ("Intacto") ably takes over the reins from Danny Boyle ("28 Days Later") and slams us into the sequel with an opening sequence as powerful as Zack Snyder's "Dawn of the Dead" remake. Don (Robert Carlyle, "The Full Monty"), who abandoned wife Alice (Catherine McCormack, "Braveheart") in terror during an attack, lives to meet the U.S. Contaminated by the rage virus, Great Britain is evacuated, leaving the few uninfected to fight for themselves.
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