Review of 28 Days Later

Introduction

28 Days Later was one of those films that arrived in British cinemas with a lot of hype. Here was a British version of a post-apocalyptic world after some major disaster. For some reason it just didn`t appeal to me at the time and I only recently picked it up in one of those 2-for-1 deals so prevalent in DVD stockists these days.

The disaster in this case is a psychological virus called Rage, which takes effect within seconds and turns the victim into a raving blood-thirsty lunatic. A group of animal rights activists break into a lab and, despite warnings, release an infected monkey that quickly sees the virus unleashed with devasting and far-reaching consequences. The main action starts, as the title states, 28 days later. Jim wakes in a deserted hospital, having been in an accident prior to the start of infection, and is totally bewildered by the deserted streets of London. Slowly Jim starts to realise what has happened by finding old newspapers and by encountering the infected in an old church. The latter chase him down, where he is saved by Selene and Mark who try to fill in the gaps in his knowledge. After a horrendous mistake that tragically leads to the death of one of their number, the remaining duo manage to find a temporary haven with Frank and his daughter Megan. It quickly becomes apparent that this safe refuge will not be adequate for their needs much longer and the four of them set out to reach a potential sanctuary in the North of England, based on a radio broadcast they picked up.

Video

Danny Boyle was an early convert to the use of digital video, and here it is used to great effect. The visuals are sharp and full of detail, while the colour has been suitably muted to aid in the atmosphere Boyle is trying to evoke. The other benefit of using dv is that Boyle and his crew were able to set up, execute and tear down shots very quickly. This meant that the disruption to the surrounding areas of London was minimal and also meant they were able to pull off good visuals to aid the premise of the film, such as the deserted Parliament Square and Horseguards. Another shot worth mentioning is the one towards the end of the film where Jim, lying on his back, looks through the foliage to the sky where he sees a jet and exhaust trails moving though the sky. This is quite an effective way of conveying hope in a very bleak environment.

Audio

The soundtrack is nothing too impressive, but it does the job adequately. The initial trek through London by Jim is a mixture of silence and slow music that is placed low in the mix, which helps re-inforce the isolation. This builds up to a crescendo in a track by Godspeed You Black Emperor as Jim starts to comprehend the scale of the disaster.

Features

There are quite a few good extra features on this disc, some more valuable than others.

Audio commentary - with director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland, and is quite informative on the film-making process.

Deleted scenes - of the 8 on offer, the majority are superfluous and you can understand why they had been taken out.

Pure Rage: Making Of - this documentary of is a bit of a curious mix. At both ends of this, various experts line up to state how likely such a pandemic as that portrayed could occur, comparing the spread of Rage to foot and mouth, HIV, and variant CJD. As with all promotional material it tends to only spread the viewpoint of the likehood of it happening. The remainder of this programme focuses on the making of the film. For all it`s obvious promotional bias, this is a reasonably interesting watch.

Still and Polaroid Galleries - each comes with a commentary and are quite interesting one-time views on the use of photography for promotional purposes and continuity.

Jacknife Lee music video - not that impressive either musically or visually. No shots of the group at all, and the video essentially tells the whole film in 6 minutes.

Alternate Endings - All three come with commentaries. The radical one replaces the whole of the backend of the film with limited success, whilst the conventional alternate just removes one person from the actual film end. The original ending is altogether the more satisfying despite it`s bleakness, with the two girls leaving the body of Jim in a hospital to go back out into this ravaged world to survive. Book-ending the film with hospitals was a good move and they should have stuck with it. Ultimately it was a production decision as it was felt by the team that the film was a slog to get through, this is ultimately a cop-out though.

Also comes with trailers and animated storyboards from the film website.

Conclusion

The start of this film reminds me a lot of the 1981 BBC production of The Day Of The Triffids, in that the main protagonist wakes up after the event in a deserted hospital. Not sure if that was a homage or not, as no mention of any deliberate similarity is alluded to in the commentary. The first half of this film is very good and really does evoke a feeling of complete desolation after a quick but major disaster. Unfortunately it also leads the viewer, or at least me, to ask a number of questions on the production. Why does this segment of the film remind me so much of the Granada serial The Last Train? Where are all the bodies? On the deserted streets there is no sign of any bodies at all or any major signs of trauma. Why do Jim`s initial companions walk everywhere when there is an abundance of deserted transport? Following on from that, why is a London cab deemed the most appropriate form of transport for the long trek to Manchester? Cinematically this may be down to the eye of the Director, but it doesn`t logically follow and detracts from the effectiveness of the film.

The one area that this film could have excelled at, but doesn`t, is the stakes for survival. An early mistake by Jim leads to his party being dramatically cut down from a trio to a duo. More could have been made of this, but it is glossed over and the story moves swiftly on.

Where it really starts to fall apart, however, is the inclusion of the platoon of soldiers led by Christopher Eccleston. What starts as a proposed sanctuary ends up being a ruse to lure women to his almost-mutinous men. The idea isn`t too bad, but the execution of it is, as this section of the film is hampered by the script. Jim`s brief conversion to the dark side to enable him to free his companions would also ring more true if he didn`t use the unpredictabilty of infected people to help him. Considering the plot premise of a mere drop of blood causing infection, the release by Jim of the chained infected soldier, who then proceeds to either infect or kill all the other soldiers, is rather silly. Incredibly though, our heroes escape the chaos of this situation to a rather contrived but optimistic ending.

Hailed as a Brit zombie flick, this film hits the right mark in places but is ultimately unsatisfying. One to rent first, I think.