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Why this film is much better than the sequel. Spoilers

posted 13 years ago by davidc004
14 replies | jump to latest

In my opinion "28 days later" is far superior to it's sequel and there are many reasons for me to reach this conclusion but a few of the big reasons are that in 28 days later, the film feels far more realstic (I mean as realstic as a film involving rage infected people and a catastrohpe can be) whereas 28 weeks later will just have you staring out your screen screaming (almost in a rage?) "AS IF!!!" and also not the mention the characters, in 28 days later there was real character development and you started to really care for the characters, (Need I mention when Brendan Gleeson's character Frank was shot? there was a real feeling of loss) contrast that with 28 weeks later when you had people coming in and dieing and not really caring. (Not to mention the 2 kids were so obnoxious that I wasen't really rooting for them at all, mainly due to their selfishness, helping bring about a second epidemic and frankly not seeming to care(!), coldness towards Robert Carlyle's character Don, as they had no idea what he or anyone else had to go through, since they were sat in a refugge camp in sunny Spain!") Also 28 days later had a good message about humanity, and all that we are capable of, whilst the Infected are terrifying and brilliant they are never truley the main focus and the point was how much worse or simillar normal, uninfected humans could be but also how brilliant and beautiful humans can be and all the good they are capable of. There may have been some sort of message in 28 weeks later, in regard to real life American foreign policy etc but mainly what I got from it was don't big up a site as secure when two whiny little, selfish kids can hop on out within a short period of arriving! (I know they were found very quickly but the point is they were able to get out to begin with.) Just my two cents. I did enjoy 28 weeks later, just nowhere near as much. Thanks for reading! =)

David Carey

Choose life

[–] leprutz13-1 12 years ago

I do, totally agree with you. Everything you said so far. Plus to be honest the sequel wouldn't even be possible if not for Danny Boyle's magnificence of film making. 28 days later was even scary in some kind of way. Just imagine whole of london completely empty. If this doesn't give you the creeps then nothing will. Plus it was all real.

[–] davidc004 12 years ago

I'm glad that you agree! =) Thanks for replying btw. =)

David Carey

Choose life

[–] avia2 12 years ago

This film is better because of a big plot-hole in Weeks : in the sequel, a group of infected can't even smash into the abandoned car, whereas they obviously can in the first film.

[–] koffeenkreame41-1 12 years ago

Yeah, you're right about that. I actually forgot about that until you brought it up. I liked 28 Weeks but the kids got on my nerves. I prefer 28 Days Later but I really loved the action and tension in 28 Weeks Later. Also, is it me or were the children the reason why things were getting screwed up.

In 28 Weeks, Don & Alice and a couple others are hiding out in a cottage, they've obviously been safe there for a while. Here comes the kid, and almost immediately after, the infected follow him to the cottage and people are killed. And after Alice decides to look for the boy, she becomes infected. Later on, the children decide to ditch the safe zones and go play outside and later they find their mother, obviously in a frantic & crazed state as well as infected. Now, she is the one that knowingly infects Don but in a total dumb move kisses the man, thus infecting him and forgets that she's strapped down and the one there for him to attack. I never understood why she did that. Why couldn't she just take the kids with her or tell him she was infected. What she did got her killed and left the kids with two parents that were gone.

And near the very end, Imogen Poots' character sees that her brother is infected after he was bitten by Don. She can see that for some reason, he is immune and not showing any signs of infection other than his eyes. She sees Flynn, Doyle's buddy and doesn't tell him about her brother's infection. He gets them on his chopper and we're left to wonder what happened, as the chopper is crashed, no one is inside. We are left to believe that the brother had attacked Flynn and caused the chopper to crash killing them all inside or that they ran into more infected at some point. I don't know but I think it's very likely that the brother had attacked Flynn as well as the sister.

I wonder if that was a theme with this picture? It seems like it was, I hope it isn't but it certainly appears that way, doesn't it?

"I am the ultimate badass, you do not wanna `*beep*` wit me!"- Hudson in Aliens.

[–] avia2 12 years ago

I don't think the little brother attacked them in the helicopter. He'd inherited his mother's immunity... or else he would've gone crazy by the time they reached the helicopter.

My guess is he accidentally spread the infection, eg. if the pilot had shared his bottle of water.

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] MixSwiss 12 years ago

I was up last night what do you know. 28 Weeks Later came on... I just re watched the sequel last night and it just reinforce how much I could care less for it. It reinforce how it is now where on the greatness level as 28 Days Later. I feel they made the sequel too fast. I think everyone would be on edge to see the sequel if it was coming out now 10 years later and it probably would have been better because those annoying kids would not have been a part of it. What a lackluster sequel. I love the first one so much. I mean I have seen it countless times.. I can teach a class on this movie .

It's no wonder there has not been a third film yet.. the second one probably hurt any chances of it...

[–] paul_tachian 12 years ago

Why this film is much better than the sequel?

Because Fox are a bunch of myopic, greedy SOBs. They went from Danny Boyle's artistic flair to just another average sequel that lacks subtlety and character development.

I've read and seen enough of the sequel to know I won't be watching it!

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] The_Coma-Man 10 years ago

Well, to be fair... it is quite bad.

The points made above - especially those about the decisions the teen-characters make - are spot on. Same with Carlyle's character. I can see what they tried to with him, but it just didn't work. At all.

Back then, Boyle seemed genuinely interested to create a Euro/Brit horror franchise. It's funny, back when it came out, 28 Days Later had a 6.9 on imdb, while 28 Weeks started out with, I think, 7.9 (or 7.7). That says more about the tastes of the masses back when.

[–] kurt7825 10 years ago

the sequel is better

[–] C_Dubya 10 years ago

I enjoy both films but 28 Days is a personal favorite.

[–] ph75006 10 years ago

Yes!
Unlike most of my friends, I'm not a fan of zombie movies. It took a lot of convincing for me to finally agree to see this one and much to my surprise, I absolutely loved it. For all the reasons you listed. The only reason I bothered to check out the sequel was b/c I enjoyed this one so much. Unfortunately 28 Weeks Later couldn't begin to compare with this! I was SO disappointed!

[–] ArigatouNosferatu 8 years ago

I disagree. The third act in Days is awful, it was badly written in my opinion. And Days is dated, even now, because of how they shot it.

Weeks has a tighter grip on narrative, although like you said there isn't as much character development. Plus, Weeks' opening 5 minutes or so are some of the greatest scenes of all cinema in perhaps the 21st century.

Days however focuses well on space and the abandoned city, the contrast between rural and urban spaces. It's smartly framed too, notice how whenever the gang is on the road the camera sits behind things, windmills, foliages, cars, walls, the camera is always disguised somehow, this really conveys the sense of constant threat.

Both films are good imo, I just don't think Days is better than Weeks, I think ultimately with these two, it just comes down to preference, we should just love them both!