28 Years Later (2025) * *

 

Directed by:  Danny Boyle

Starring:  Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer, Ralph Fiennes, Alfie Williams

28 Years Later is a mixed bag.  I'm not a fan of zombie apocalypse movies because zombies are limited as far as villains go.  They rush at the heroes in masses waiting to be picked off like a video game.  They have no personalities of their own and moan incessantly while searching for their next victim.  Killing them (again) is merciful.  

I confess I did not see 28 Days Later or 28 Weeks Later, the first two films of this series, and fortunately seeing those wasn't a prerequisite to viewing this third installment.  The protagonists, father and son Jamie and Spike (Taylor-Johnson and Williams) are leaving their island so Jamie can initiate twelve-year-old Spike into the art of hunting the zombies who live on the mainland.  Their small town on the island and encompassed by a wall, and for good reason.  Jamie gives Spike lessons in killing the zombies, which is necessary to keep them on their side of the causeway leading from the mainland to the island which is sometimes submerged at high tide.  

There are legends of a doctor (Fiennes) who lives on the island and could potentially help Jamie's ailing, bedridden wife Isla (Comer), who is besieged by headaches and horrible nightmares.  The second half of the movie involves Spike leading his mother in the zombie-laden mainland to find the mysterious doctor, should he even exist.  Jamie inexplicably disappears for most of the second half.  Spike and Isla find the doctor, who kills the zombies, decapitates them, and then boils the skin off of their skulls.  He then piles the skulls on top of each other to create a large shrine.  This is a man with time on his hands.  However, as played by Fiennes, he hasn't lost his compassion in such a dystopian world.  Fiennes is the best thing about 28 Years Later, playing someone to whom this apocalypse has affected on multiple levels, but has retained his humanity.  

Zombies were never interesting opponents.  They are nameless, faceless, and devoid of personality.  The ending leaves open room for another sequel.   It won't be called 28 Decades later, I wouldn't think.