When I first heard that a sequel was being developed for Danny Boyle's super-bleak post-apocalyptic vision of hell 28 Days Later I groaned with despair. There was absolutely nothing anyone could do that would even come close to matching the quirk and desolation that was felt all throughout Days, and to turn such a great movie into a pointless franchise seemed almost blasphemous. Then the wonderful trailers hit...but I knew that despite how great they looked, it was nothing but deception.

Needless to say, my expectations going into Weeks were a little low.

When it comes to sequels, the thing to do is to pile on as much as possible. What the first one had, multiply by at least 2 or more. This usually ends up with a massive pile of crap.

With 28 Weeks, director Juan Fresnadillo (who directed the equally quirky and bizarrely depressing Intacto) somehow managed to keep the bleak feeling of the original while expanding oh so slightly on the mythos of the Raged World. In fact, this sequel somehow manages to be even more bleak than the original, if not quite as good as a final product.

Watching what the poor family goes through during this ordeal is almost horrendous. If you think someone can't get out of a situation; well, they aren't. They're toast. There are no magical endings in this world, hence the aforementioned bleakness perpetuating the film. There is talk of a cure possibly being developed, but by the time anything can be done it's too late.

Of course, there are some examples of sequel-ing it up; more gore, more blood vomiting, a quicker pace, less character development. But while that all may be true, the movie is a solid shot through that really never lets up.

The only part of the movie that didn't quite grab me was a section where the heroes are travelling through a pitch-black tunnel with only a night vision scope on a rifle to help them. It was an attempt for added tension but it never seemed real to me.

Of course the addition of the US military in a ravaged country is easy to pinpoint as the 'political' statement, if you can call it one; the soldiers walk around at night talking about "what's on TV" while looking in apartment windows through their scopes and when things go haywire the military's solution isn't exactly an honorable one. However, this is few and far between, and never gets in the way of the story, just something to note while watching.

I suggest checking it out in the theaters. As a sequel it really works, and while not without it's problems, it's a nice addition to the series.

Two notes:

1. No, they aren't zombies, but the Infected act like zombies, and are clearly designed to be zombie-like. So we get why you call them zombies, but just know they aren't.

2. No, there is no plot hole from the first one about the rest of the world being infected. If you pay attention, there is talk about New York and Paris being infected, but it later turns out to be false when Jim sees the plane flying overhead. The Isles were totally quarantined.

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