18/06/2025
28 YEARS LATER is worth the wait. In fact, I think it benefits from the wait. With so many years having passed between installments, thereās so many new layers to explore when it comes to how the worldās changed, how the survivors have adapted, and also how the virus and the infected have evolved. It ensures the movie feels well connected to the previous installments but also has so many new corners of this mythology and situation to discover and dig into.
Another thing that makes it feel especially fresh is the turn it takes in the second half, and particularly in the third act. No spoilers, of course, but I do need to emphasize how refreshing I found those themes and plot points. Theyāre something I never knew I needed in a 28 Years movie.
Zooming back out, I loved the trio of main characters played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer, and Alfie Williams. Williams, in particular, is staggeringly impressive in his first main role in a feature film. In just one movie, Williams suggests he can do just about anything as an actor. That happens because heās so talented all on his own, of course, but also because heās given a script that gives him a stunningly complex and rich coming-of-age journey to navigate. Spikeās a product of his mother and his father, and heās got a unique connection with each of them, so watching him take parts of each and apply them to how he navigates this world makes his arc incredible full and gratifying.
As for the action, Danny Boyle delivers big there as well. Stakes and intensity donāt get much higher than this. A number of set pieces left me totally breathless. And while they can get quite brutal, theyāre also loaded with downright gorgeous photography from Anthony Dod Mantle. Yet again, heās a total ace at fully enveloping you in the charactersā fight to survive, but thereās also a good deal of astonishingly beautiful imagery. While I loved many of the visuals, my personal favorite is a no-brainer - a run across the causeway.