Storyline Archives:

Ah, the final scene.  This is what the first nine pages was bringing to a close.  This is my vision of what should have happened.  Sure, it makes for a very short movie, but it makes more sense than having a civilian refugee with free access to the entire base getting infected and starting everything over again.  Not only that, but when he did get infected, he seemed to retain some sort of intelligence which goes against everything that was established about the virus in the first movie and the beginning of the second.  I don’t mind fantastic tales, in fact some of my favorite movies are all about fantasy.  But making characters and established organizations break their own rules and defy logic is a deal breaker for me.  As good as the first movie was, this movie started out great, then burst the bubble at this point.  From here on it’s a never ending stream of BS.  If there is a third (the end left it open for one), I certainly hope they go back to the original premise, right the train on its tracks and get back to making a movie that is worth watching.

One has to love Army efficiency.  If it can’t be cured or innoculated against, it has to be killed.

In the movie, Carlisle’s character is actually able to use his keypass to get into a highly secure military quarantine area.  He does this looking for his wife.  He has his reunion, gives her a big, sloppy kiss, gets infected and then hell breaks loose. 

Sorry, civilians that were rescued from a super-virus and put into a quarantine area don’t get access to highly secure military areas. 

Still out of touch.  With reality or just the inter-tubes, well, that’s for you to decide…

What kind of kick in the balls would it be to find out the wife you left behind to get mauled by virus-infected zombies actually survives and gets found by your kids?  The same kids you informed that their mother was dead.  The same wife you feel guilt-ridden over because you left her there as a zombie buffet.  Will I ever stop asking rhetorical questions?  And then adding to them.

Probably not.

If you are seeing this, then the automated posting feature is working great.  I’m actually out of town (and offline somewhat) until later this week.

Here’s the first look we see with the doctor (the one in the mask).  She plays a pivotal role in the movie, but I’m relegating her to a minor character because, really, she doesn’t do much. 

Ah, we’ve rounded past the half-way point on the first "How it Should Have Happened" series, and are drawing closer to the finish. 

The mom survived!  Who knew?  Yeah, it was fairly obvious in the movie too.

On another totally unrelated note, CFL’s are awesome… until they start to go out.  Once that happens, the flicker is like having a campfire hiding somewhere in the room.

Okay, this is probably the first gaping hole in the movie.  Any quarantine area secured by the military is going to be air tight both coming and going.  I’m letting this slide, however, because if anyone can find a security hole, it would be a teenager. 

I guess a zombie epidemic would be one way to get rid of the "ol’ ball and chain." 

The distressed/angry look you see on the mom (Alice) is just about the only look you see from that character.  I wonder if they cast her just for that look.

Yep, another small bladder joke.

28 Weeks Later is filmed in a very jittery way.  I guess the cameramen ran along side the actors as they did their thing, because half the movie is nothing but action blur.  This actually draws the viewer in nicely in some of the more intense scenes, however it has the draw back that too much of it causes some viewers physical discomort.  About halfway through the movie, I started getting eye strain and soon after a headache insued.  The only other time I’ve ever experienced this type of actual physical response to the cinematography of a movie is with Natural Born Killers.  That movie took three tries to get through it just once.  The odd camera angles, the pan-ins and pan-outs and the psychedelic colors threw me for a loop, and nausiated me at some points. 

The film jitter gets old after a while when watching the film after the first time.  It almost takes away from the enjoyment of watching the movie again, because you now know what to expect, and want to see all the detail.  However, all you get is a hurried blur and then it’s on to the next scene.  

28 Weeks Later wasn’t a bad film until it started stretching the bounds of how people interact with reality.  I’m not talking virus created zombies that kill anything that moves (except for each other, which I did find rather convenient).  I understand that a movie like this is going to go outside the lines when it comes to being real.  However, in order to make it immersive, you have to portray your characters as real people in an unreal situation.  They have to still behave and interact in the same manner as they would without the extraordinary circumstances.  This movie loses that about a third of the way in. 

The first How It Should Have Happened is up. The first set in this series explores 28 Weeks Later. Spoilers below:

28 Weeks Later is a sequel in a modern day zombie movie with a twist. The zombies were created by an extremely contagious virus (called the Rage Virus, if memory serves) that takes only moments to proliferate through the host body. Those infected lose their minds and become killing machines. The infected don’t last long, however. They typically only live around 28 days (the title of the first movie), after which they starve. By the time the second movie comes along, it’s been 28 weeks since the initial breakout, and most of England is dead from the virus. Those that are still alive are herded into a refugee camp in a quarantined area set up by the Unites States Army.

This first page pokes fun of the access that one of the main characters has in this refugee camp.  He basically has a card that lets him into everything, including highly secure military areas.