IR Film Review: 28 YEARS LATER [Sony]

The conceit of "28 Years Later" is a concept of how life has changed against the backdrop of the rage and the ideas at play. This sequel is actually much more complicated and spiritual in a way. It is split into two parts...and is interesting in the building canon of Alex Garland as his ideas of morality and social contextualization continue to evolve. The crux of the film (despite the prologue which only really makes more sense with the end) is Spike (played by Alfie Williams). He is the eyes through which the new generation will see this quarantined world. What the beginning shows is a progression of life (specifically one island, cut off from the mainland) which has created its own culture, almost a sect, that brings back to mind the 1800s, no technology but an awareness of what came before. Alfie is being taught by his father (Aaron Taylor Johnson) to take out the infected. It is almost sport but one meant to be a rite of passage. During this, Alfie's mother, sick with something unknown (not the plague) withers in bed. Jodie Comer plays this role which is subdued and yet Comer is still the top billed. Her perspective only really comes into play in the 2nd half of the film which is a distinctly different trap. The first part establishes the world and how things have changed and yet how they have stayed the same. The aspect of the wild informs the stampedes but also the alpha structure. That creates the darkness but also the tension at the end of the first part. It is simple in many ways and yet epic in others.

Boyle knows how to shoot this (though at the beginning he tends to intercut some older archery footage from 1950s movies...that part seems a little out of place). Once that first part establishes Alfie. He then, through a journey to figure out what is wrong with his mom, sets out to meet Dr. Kelson (who has his own approach to the world at hand). Alfie and his father see the fire burning when he is out and about. Thinking more about its structure (save for the very end -- which might be redeemed in the next film), Garland really does something neat in making the film feels like a novel and not a movie. When they go back out, Alfie intersects the lone member of another team which we see try to traverse what is going on. The reality of the quarantine is specific. Once you are inside the zone, you can never leave. As the second part progresses, specifically with a really intense but powerful scene inside a train car, Nelson (Ralph Fiennes) makes his presence known. What the film does is hyperfocus the actors for what they are doing and they speak to the sections they are in. Fiennes' section is the most existential but also disturbing in a way but it is anchored by his acting, the logic and the calm but also subverting expectation. One final moment that is touching but brutal in its brilliance stands with the best of Boyle because this is genre and yet it is pure too. The epilogue again tries to pave the way for the next film but some of the power in this film shows how those involved have grown but though time understand a bit more about the mortal (and moral) questions they are exploring. B+

By Tim Wassberg