28 Days later Movies Review (1,2,3+ Bone temple)

*Warning: I have been told I sound pretentious and arrogant when talking in non-casual settings. That's not my intention, this is just how I write. Also spoilers. 

*You'll find that many points are kept pretty vague, that's because this is not a well thought out review but rather a collection of thoughts and some of them haven't finished cooking completely.

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*The 28 days later movies are just a series of great movies.The weakest of them had to be the second, "28 Weeks later". It didn't quite capture the essence of the first and following films and felt more like a typical blockbuster-esque zombie flick comparable to the likes of "the walking dead", which is not a terrible series but has, in my opinion, very little to offer past mindless entertainment. (Which in of itself is not criticism, I am not immune to movies that have no emotional value apart from simple fun. The walking dead is simply unappealing to me in that regard) 

Considering this, I see it as a lucky mistake that I somehow managed to fuck Up the watch order and see the second first. No doubt, Watching it by release order would have left me wholly disappointed after the first. Perhaps for this reason as well I lack the ire other fans of the franchise direct towards the second movie. 

The first movie "28 days later" was plainly just a really good film. I am not a fan of the zombie genre, the only reason I initiated a zombie-film-binge-movie-night in the first place was out of a feeling of obligation. As a horror fan it felt inadequate to turn my nose up at what is not an insignificant portion of the horror genre. Acting like a stuck up birch over a type of movie I have never seen. Nonetheless I went in expecting garbage. And after the second movie (which i accidentally watched first, as previously mentioned) which met my expectations of barely scratching the surface of just alright, the first movie (which i watched after the second) threw my arrogant ass for a loop. I really liked that movie. The camera work was unique and had an almost Found footage vibe to it at times, the scenery was beautiful and the colors were pleasing. A far shot from the typical washed out grey and grime color I was expecting. Some shots:

I have seen many complaints about it being "low quality" and "looking bad" which really shows how limited some people's mental capacity is. If they want a 9000HD quality film they'd find James Cameron's Avatar and other big screen slop much more appealing I'm sure. 

The camera work fits the movie, it's adding to the enjoyment, not subtracting from it. The same people might just complain of movies like 'as above so below' and otherwise alike films having a "too shakey camera" when that is the entire point! Just another thing to get ragebaited by. Back to the point, I found the lack of this style of camera work in future films to be a very real loss. 

Outside of the visuals, the story was interesting, the main characters managed the enormous feat that is not being annoying. And it had a surprising lack of focus on the zombies, and I don't mean that in a literal sense the zombies were very much on the screen. What I mean is that I don't think the movie at its core is about zombies. I thought it was very interesting that they choose to focus on the humans in such a way. The first half of the movie spends it's time building up the relationships between the characters, you get a feeling of camaraderie and solidarity between the characters, even though they're barely just surviving it is a very happy part of the movie. The characters have a clear goal, they're trotting towards a finish line that they believe could be salvation, and that gives them hope. And the longer they go on living and relishing what they have left it gives the viewers hope that this could work out for them. Until they reach that goal and that atmosphere of hope breaks. They are were they've set out to be, they have what they wanted. They are safe from the zombies, but somehow this place filled with fellow humans feels more unsafe than the outside ever had. There is this tenseness and air of threat looming over them, that has not been there when it was just the 4 of them and hundreds of zombies. Out of the frying pan and into the fire. Even During a zombie apocalypse, the things that brought them closest to death, were humans. Of course, the movie still ends on a hopeful note, which doesn't doesn't negate any of my observations but highlights them instead.

This focus on Hope and humanity instead of the more cynical and doomsdayish narrative that one (i) might expect continuous on throughout the 3rd and 4th movie. 

The 3rd movie "28 years later", fittingly my 3rd favorite as well, was a major step up from the second, though personally I preferred the 1st one over it. The stripped down premise here is almost an invert of the 1st movie, where in the first we start off alone and go seek out community just to abandon it in the end, in the 3rd we start out in a community, abandon that community to go off on our own and then at the end we find ourselves, against our will, in a community again. In a less objective way it's also an inverse of the second movie, where the second had an amazing intro scene and the rest of the movie was, well you know, this one had an, in my opinion, an incredibly bad intro (which almost made me drop the movie) but the rest of the film more than made up for it. It introduced a few new concepts and change of scenery (from city to Forest) which helped set it apart from it's predecessors. This movie wears it's themes more on the sleeve than the first one did, in the sense that they, y'know, talk about it. That ofcourse being death and rememberance. Which is handled in a way that's beautiful and very easy to pick up on I believe. So I don't feel any particular desire to read into it even though I don't doubt that there is stuff to read into. But there are some things that I do want to talk about, first off their use of the song "Boots", which to be completely honest confused me and at first made me think that the movie was going in MUCH different direction. Which would've been interesting, but more fitting for what the first movie was going for. Alas I am still confused on what exactly they were going for, is it supposed to be a parallel on their "war against the zombies"? I can see how the lyrics can be interpreted to fit the zombie apocalypse, yet I feel it is still oddly out of place. Perhaps it's simply because I can't distance it from my association of the poem with warfare. If anyone has more insight on this I would be very curious to hear it. Unrelated to the film at large but i was very pleased by the bone temple, or shrine, not for any other reason than that it's simply gearing much closer to my personal beliefs, and I'm not fond of burials. Some Screen captures from this movie: 

Now the 4th movie in the series, "28 Year later: The Bone Temple", my absolute favorite, I LOVED this movie. Not only a good time from start to finish, but also incredibly beautiful message and very interesting stuff going on here with the themes. Especially the religious parallels, which I will go on a tangent on in a moment. First off, this movie is a direct continuation of the 3rd one which I'm not complaining about I was honestly so glad to see Dr Kelson again, it also foregoes the typical structure of the 28 days later franchise by not having an intro scene but starting directly with the plot of the movie. Similarly unlike the 1st, 2nd and 3rd movie which can be watched as standalones, this one requires you to see the third first to understand everything. This movie feels more like an extension of the 3rd one which is why I'm not bothered by these things. 

A zombie apocalypse is ripe ground for plenty of religious and Bible parallels and I can't believe I have seen no one else capitalize off this yet. The zombie apocalypse itself could be seen as an allegory for the end times, what with the "resurrection of the dead" and all. Or Rather "Lucifers army coming down to scoure the earth", which is closer to what the movie implies but I'm not sure how biblically accurate that is. 

Something I've seen floating around is how Samson and Dr. Kelson are supposed to represent Adam and the snake or Lucifer. Dr. Kelson heals Samson from the disease giving him his mind back the way the snake tricks Eve (And adam) to eat the forbidden fruit granting them free will. Though Samson's and Dr. Kelson story of course is represented in a more positive light compared to the Bibles "original sin", it's also notable that giving someone something for the first time and returning something someone used to have are not the same. I don't think this was unintentional, since doctor Kelson was brought in direct comparison with Lucifer in the movie, but my framing of it is slightly off the mark, yet I struggle to formulate sentences that more accurately resemble my thoughts on this matter. 

The two storylines in the movie itself are contrasting, one is about extending empathy towards the monstrous and the other is about commiting cruelty towards humans. I appreciated the 28 days later movie for showing that the scariest part about a zombie apocalypse aren't the zombies but other humans. Zombies don't have a mind, they cannot be cruel the same way animals cannot be cruel. They are how they are because they can't be any other way. Humans can choose. In the apocalypse good people will either live or die and so will bad people. The apocalypse is terrifying because with everything gone there is nothing to keep those survivors in line. It makes people so so vulnerable, their forced to trust and rely on other humans because there is no one else and those bad people can take advantage of that. In a way they're worse than the zombies because they chose to inflict pain and suffering on others. It's very hypocritical for Jimmy Crystal to call the infected demons, when him and his fanatics are more suited to fit the bill.

On the other side, we have the zombies. Technically, you can't even call them zombies. They're not undead, they're alive, just sick. In this way they're not some inherent evil or "demons" but rather victims just like the survivors they hunt. 

There are also some implications on mental health and the psyche, but I'm Not going into that, It's not a topic I feel confident speaking on. 

I have more thoughts on some particular aspects of the movie but this rather long already. Ghost out