"28 Days" Series: Love It or Hate It?
- Thread starter Cryofthewolf
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Days was on TV awhile ago so I watched it, and I thought it was pretty darn good. Never seen Weeks though.
Well, considering the speed with which it spreads, and the fact that it has reached the mainland, it wouldn't be a stretch to assume that it has expanded far into the East.Cryofthewolf said:
Anyways, "Days" is one of my favorite movies ever, a modern classic, I would say. It's characters, atmosphere, and story are pitch-perfect. "Weeks: is good enough, in that it manages to carry a fair bit of Boyle's style with him, along with a a very we-ll developed score by John Murphy. However, the story just felt too impersonal and rushed for my tastes.
I've seen both. I definitely liked Days better of the two. There's spoilers of both below, so don't read if you haven't seen them. I personally think after 5+ years people should either go watch/play/read whatever or not expect everyone to keep the twists and turns a secret. But whatever, moving on....
That's not to say Days was without problems though. First, the positive. It had a pretty genuinely creepy, hostile environment for the pre-Mansion part of the movie. It didn't just make everything dark and have squeeky cats pop out every ten minutes like some horror flicks do. You got the feeling that this place is totally fucked and there's little hope of escaping it. The viewer also discovered (though much wasn't hard to guess) what happened along with Jim. The writer and director obviously heeded the "Show, don't tell" mantra of writing/storytelling.
The characters while not ultra deep studies of the human character weren't all one dimensional and boring. Towards the end of the movie there's a moment where Jim is about to be brained by the black girl (who's name I forget) because he's acting as, if not more, savage than the infected. The Rage Virus didn't transform people into blood-thirsty monsters, it kind of just flipped a switch that was already there. Or flipped a switch off. Depends on your view of human nature, I suppose.
Now for the negative. The story while still entertaining was far too predictable towards the end. The soldiers kidnap and are pretty blatantly planning on gang raping the two girls (one of whom is underage), and take Jim off into the woods to put a few new holes in his head. Did anyone not see that coming? That's not rhetorical, I'd like to actually know if a person exists who while watching 28 Days Later did not realize what was coming? I'll wait...
Ok, so that's not much negative. Well, the CG zombie child was pretty bad CG. There, that's all the bad I can speak of Days.
As for Weeks...here we go. Let's start with the positives again. The intro was suspenseful and built tension and terror as infected began to burst through with increasingly little apparent hope of escape. Then the cowardly, later-infected, antagonist flees in broad daylight in a speedboat that was conveniently just left tied to a dock, not half full or sunk from of any rainwater in the past SIX MONTHS (I never new England didn't get rain), and makes his getaway.
Now for some negative. Improbably dry and basically fully functional speedboat aside, maybe the director was trying to go for some sort of ironic contrast of the nighttime-like conditions of the survivors hiding out with candles to the shocking full daylight escape, but it really didn't work for me. Being "avant garde" or whatever by having the contrast of daylight in a zombie movie and that the infected are still vicious even when they could get a tan...Ugh. Maybe it's just me, but the dark adds a fear of the unknown. The pre-preposterous escape scene was dark despite it being daylight. That makes sense because the survivors had boarded all the windows, but I didn't get the sense it was daytime watching it. It just really didn't work for me. Maybe I'm just weird, whatever.
Back to some later in the movie positive. I found several of the character interactions interesting, if still a bit weird. The husband who escaped in the beginning kissing his wife, becoming infected and then violently murdering her, and stalking his own children in an apparently more willful and intelligent way than most infected was pretty disturbing yet interesting. I'm not entirely sure what the commentary there was, but I definitely noticed something.
The movies two BIG negatives that really made it a mediocre successor to Days are that after the infection disaster starts practically everybody but the main characters (and sometimes some of them as well) is handed the Idiot Ball for the rest of the movie.
Watching it you'll constantly be asking yourself, "Why the hell did he/she/they do that?!?" as somebody does something stupid that is either self-defeating or a massive overreaction that is unlikely to improve the situation. (Somebody on an earlier page mentioned that the overreaction of the American troops who begin murdering everyone, including the obviously not infected, was supposed to be social commentary. But it was handled so hamhandedly it was lost on most people.)
There's also the ending. The movie was originally supposed to have the kid who was infected, like his dead mom, but not psycho because of it (also like his mom) being flown away and the credits rolling. The new director instead hired a bunch of extras (a.k.a. "homeless people") to get on some makeup and run at the camera all crazily in France in a final scene. There could, hopefully, be some non-retarded explanation for how this happened, but I really doubt it.
It reminds me of the very much dead, with his head cut and waved about to the camera no less, Vorador appearing without explanation in Blood Omen 2. It was made by a different studio who crapped all over the continuity with a nonsensical story and forced the proper devteam in Defiance to try and explain away all the nonsense. (The answer was basically, "A wizard did it!" Kain gained sudden new powers that you'd have thought he would have used before under different circumstances, but didn't because nobody had asspulled them yet.)
That's not to say Days was without problems though. First, the positive. It had a pretty genuinely creepy, hostile environment for the pre-Mansion part of the movie. It didn't just make everything dark and have squeeky cats pop out every ten minutes like some horror flicks do. You got the feeling that this place is totally fucked and there's little hope of escaping it. The viewer also discovered (though much wasn't hard to guess) what happened along with Jim. The writer and director obviously heeded the "Show, don't tell" mantra of writing/storytelling.
The characters while not ultra deep studies of the human character weren't all one dimensional and boring. Towards the end of the movie there's a moment where Jim is about to be brained by the black girl (who's name I forget) because he's acting as, if not more, savage than the infected. The Rage Virus didn't transform people into blood-thirsty monsters, it kind of just flipped a switch that was already there. Or flipped a switch off. Depends on your view of human nature, I suppose.
Now for the negative. The story while still entertaining was far too predictable towards the end. The soldiers kidnap and are pretty blatantly planning on gang raping the two girls (one of whom is underage), and take Jim off into the woods to put a few new holes in his head. Did anyone not see that coming? That's not rhetorical, I'd like to actually know if a person exists who while watching 28 Days Later did not realize what was coming? I'll wait...
Ok, so that's not much negative. Well, the CG zombie child was pretty bad CG. There, that's all the bad I can speak of Days.
As for Weeks...here we go. Let's start with the positives again. The intro was suspenseful and built tension and terror as infected began to burst through with increasingly little apparent hope of escape. Then the cowardly, later-infected, antagonist flees in broad daylight in a speedboat that was conveniently just left tied to a dock, not half full or sunk from of any rainwater in the past SIX MONTHS (I never new England didn't get rain), and makes his getaway.
Now for some negative. Improbably dry and basically fully functional speedboat aside, maybe the director was trying to go for some sort of ironic contrast of the nighttime-like conditions of the survivors hiding out with candles to the shocking full daylight escape, but it really didn't work for me. Being "avant garde" or whatever by having the contrast of daylight in a zombie movie and that the infected are still vicious even when they could get a tan...Ugh. Maybe it's just me, but the dark adds a fear of the unknown. The pre-preposterous escape scene was dark despite it being daylight. That makes sense because the survivors had boarded all the windows, but I didn't get the sense it was daytime watching it. It just really didn't work for me. Maybe I'm just weird, whatever.
Back to some later in the movie positive. I found several of the character interactions interesting, if still a bit weird. The husband who escaped in the beginning kissing his wife, becoming infected and then violently murdering her, and stalking his own children in an apparently more willful and intelligent way than most infected was pretty disturbing yet interesting. I'm not entirely sure what the commentary there was, but I definitely noticed something.
The movies two BIG negatives that really made it a mediocre successor to Days are that after the infection disaster starts practically everybody but the main characters (and sometimes some of them as well) is handed the Idiot Ball for the rest of the movie.
Watching it you'll constantly be asking yourself, "Why the hell did he/she/they do that?!?" as somebody does something stupid that is either self-defeating or a massive overreaction that is unlikely to improve the situation. (Somebody on an earlier page mentioned that the overreaction of the American troops who begin murdering everyone, including the obviously not infected, was supposed to be social commentary. But it was handled so hamhandedly it was lost on most people.)
There's also the ending. The movie was originally supposed to have the kid who was infected, like his dead mom, but not psycho because of it (also like his mom) being flown away and the credits rolling. The new director instead hired a bunch of extras (a.k.a. "homeless people") to get on some makeup and run at the camera all crazily in France in a final scene. There could, hopefully, be some non-retarded explanation for how this happened, but I really doubt it.
It reminds me of the very much dead, with his head cut and waved about to the camera no less, Vorador appearing without explanation in Blood Omen 2. It was made by a different studio who crapped all over the continuity with a nonsensical story and forced the proper devteam in Defiance to try and explain away all the nonsense. (The answer was basically, "A wizard did it!" Kain gained sudden new powers that you'd have thought he would have used before under different circumstances, but didn't because nobody had asspulled them yet.)
28 Day Later was truly amazing. Anyone who hasn't seen it yet should definitely watch it right now.
28 Weeks Later, however, was more or less a snorefest. I guess if "28 ___ Later" is going to turn into a series, then 'Weeks' was just there to create conflict that the first movie already resolved. It didn't have a great story and all around wasn't a great movie.
28 Weeks Later, however, was more or less a snorefest. I guess if "28 ___ Later" is going to turn into a series, then 'Weeks' was just there to create conflict that the first movie already resolved. It didn't have a great story and all around wasn't a great movie.
OH!Aylaine said:The one where civilian Murphy pulls a crazy eye gouge move that made me shiver with delight.Hazy said:By 'cinematic scene at the end' do you mean the original or alternate ending?Aylaine said:I love them, even though the second one lacked the atmosphere of the first. The main theme used for the movie was really great too. Perfectly fits the cinematic scene at the end of the first movie.
The alternate being Jim's death in the hospital
Regardless, have to agree with the above. 28 Days Later sports an opening featuring such well-done ambiance and isolation tactics, that it's easily one of my favorite openings in cinema historys.
And while 28 Weeks Later faltered on delivering the same thrills of the environment, it still managed to be a pretty good film.
Yes. That was quite well done.
I never cared for it because it changed the "rules" of zombies. I understand that the precise reason is that these people technically aren't zombies but they maintain enough of the traits that zombie culture as a whole has changed as a result.
Eh, Captain Snipeybollocks dosen't even elevate it for me, I think it's the whole part when they BOMB THE FUCK out of all the civilians, infected or not that made me go "Ok, American friendly fire jokes aside, they wouldnot bomb innocent civilians." I just feel they portrayed the Americans too stupid for me to take it seriously and enjoy it, but each to his own.Tdc2182 said:
I do agree though, his sniping is top dog but it would never happen.
28 days later was utterly fantastic.
Weeks was not as strong a sequel but it still wasn't bad at least as far as movie making goes. However I felt that it lost a lot of the emotional depth that was present in the first.
I love this series and I can honestly say I hope for a third, even though the sequel was a dissapointment I still have hope for a third being decent at least.
Weeks was not as strong a sequel but it still wasn't bad at least as far as movie making goes. However I felt that it lost a lot of the emotional depth that was present in the first.
I love this series and I can honestly say I hope for a third, even though the sequel was a dissapointment I still have hope for a third being decent at least.
She made a movie with the same name. LOLCryofthewolf said:
No sequel for that one, and for a good reason.
Loved 28 days, i liked weeks, if only for the fact that the average lifespan for a non main character is a sneese or less.
I want this to turn into 4 movies, the third about the fall of Europe and Asia and the final one as a climactic endgame in the US.
( what would happen with the US if the rest of the world would stop exporting cheap electronics and oil ? )
I really hope he keeps the same music in all the movies, fits like a glove.
Well, this has already been said by like forty people, but yeah, 28 Days was pretty awesome, 28 Weeks was mostly stupid. The part where they left that infected woman alone in a room without any guards was the point where I officially stopped caring about anything that happened because it was all just so fucking stupid.
Oh, and if they must have kids in a zombie movie, at least let them get killed off quickly instead of being annoying brats all movie long.
Oh, and if they must have kids in a zombie movie, at least let them get killed off quickly instead of being annoying brats all movie long.
Brilliantly said, my friend.evilpaul13 said:
My biggest problem with the second one was how misleading the beginning was. It started off in a way similar to 'Days', but failed to deliver after that scene was over. Although it was obvious that there wasn't an emotional/human aspect (which I've beaten like a dead horse already, I know), with the characters, I thought it was going to lead to more of what the first one delivered style-wise. Instead we got what EvilPaul mentioned above in his fantastic summary of the movies. A cheap action flick that, although it could have stood by itself without Days, disapointed because we all expected it to be another Days masterpiece. It strikes the same cord with me that the Fable series hits. So much was promised for those games that when they came out with the small amount of features that they had I lost interest fairly quickly. If Peter Moneleaux kept his mouth shut, they would have been great games.
...But I digress. Standing alone, the sequel gave us a somewhat decent action flick, but failed to live up to the standards of its predecessor.
I wonder what Movie Bob has to say about the two movies. Hopefully he decides to comment.
28 Days was extremely good, gritty and a scathing rebuke of human nature but Weeks plot was only advanced by massive amounts of stupidity of the characters.