28 Days Later - Will's Review.

Let's be honest right up front on this one; 28 Days Later is a zombie movie.

Yeah, I know; the aren't dead, they're infected by a rage virus. They are zombies; shut it!

The infected people are clearly written as zombies, with the whole 'rage virus' thing being a way of attempting to vary the origin story.

Need proof? The infected not attack each other. If they were infected with a virus that makes them angry, the would have no reason not to attack each other. Zombies don't attack zombies, because they are drawn to the living; but angry people do not attack only the calm, angry people attack each other. It may be called a 'rage virus', and it may be born from research into anger and violence, but it is clearly a zombie virus, albeit one that doesn't technically kill it's host.

It also has all the trappings of a zombie movie; a viral outbreak, a flash forward to an apocalyptic setting, a lone group of survivors clubbing together and making tough choices; even a "mankind is the real enemy" final act.

It's also a blatant advert for Pepsi and Mars inc. for at least it's first 20 minutes.

So, product placement aside, how does it fare? Very well for the first three quarters, better than average thereafter.

The not-really-zombies are the fast variety. Normally I hate that, but the cover of "not technically zombies" serves the movie well in that regard, and makes for some great chase sequences.

The famous deserted scenes of our hero wandering a post-apocalyptic London are eerie and beautiful, and the interactions with the 2 main groups of survivors he meets are differed enough to be interesting.

The problem lies in the aforementioned man as the enemy plot. Once our heroes meet the movies secondary antagonists, this basic but great zombie movie quickly gets much darker; man's inhumanity to man (or in this case, woman) is far more chilling than anything a pseudo-zombie can dish out. This segment of the film is more disturbing, and in its own way more interesting, than anything that's happened upto that point... But it's just not as entertaining.

That said, the whole movie still hangs together nicely, and for once a zombie movie has a satisfying conclusion.