For example, why did critics tell us that this was better than the first one?
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We were cheering for the kids to die. We were shocked at the utter incompetence of the troops that came in six months later to clean up the UK (“What if the virus that killed 60 million people in two days comes back?” “It won’t”). The Chunnel wasn’t dynamited shut at the first hint of a pandemic on the British Isles? They didn’t have orders to shoot to kill anyone who went into the infected zone after being told explicitly not to? They hadn’t CLEANED UP the infected zone that was RIGHT AROUND THE RECONSTRUCTION ZONE BECAUSE THERE JUST MIGHT HAVE BEEN AN INFECTED PERSON HANGING ON FOR SIX MONTHS??!!
If anyone heard a loud SNAP last night, that was my conscious suspension of disbelief giving way.
Oh, no, wait, the kids did have to drive a ways to get to their infected mom. I’ll take that one back off the table. But still, to get to their house, they had to get the keys off of a corpse that was right there next to the clean zone. What was the point of having a scene showing clean up if they didn’t start cleanup next to the clean zone?
I also loved how the “emergency lockdown plan” was to herd every person in the greenzone building into a locked basement room without light, ventiliation, any sanitation facilities, or the slightest explanation.
Clearly, that would have worked out well except the rage-infected monsters running amok, because no human has ever panicked because of a) the dark, b) being packed in a crowd, or c) not knowing what the hell is going on while loud alarms are sounding. :rolleyes:
The movie completely fell apart when the alarm was sounded. None of it made sense, jamming everyone into some room and not even guarding the back door. They should have kept them in the apartments with lots of supplies, with each building guarded by Claymores, barbed wire, and some infantry near the entrance or stairwell. Guards would also be on each floor by the stairs.
Oh, yeah, that was another plot hole - let’s put everyone in a locked room, and leave the back door open. I have a feeling we were supposed to see that as an oversight by the army in their panic, but at that point I wasn’t buying anything they were selling.
I was also thinking this morning (I’m still thinking about this movie, but not in a good way) that they would have been better off to have the re-construction camp someplace much more easily defended/firebombed, like a small town with lots of empty field around it, suitable for strafing from the air. Or a moat. Something more easily contained.
While this movie has its flaws, one thing that I thought was fascinating about it was that it took the opposite stance from just about every other “zombie” film I’ve ever seen, in that it’s our compassion for others and our tendency to band together that’s our weakness. Not everything that goes wrong is because of compassion, but every time someone shows some, it ends in disaster, or at least screwing things up worse.
The safe house at the start of the film is overrun because they reveal their position by letting in a kid. Meanwhile, Robert Carlyle survives because he doesn’t go back to save his wife.
The infection restarts both because the army doctor wants to preserve the carrier of the virus, when the safest strategy would have been to eradicate it, like smallpox, and because Carlyle goes back to show some love for her. The cold hearted army people were right.
Meanwhile, the Army was also right about trying to liquidate the colony - sucks for the poor colonists, but there wasn’t a good way of separating out panicky uninfected people from infected zombies.
And while you can’t blame them for trying to survive, the Army doctor screws up again by saving the kids - not knowing that the little boy was a carrier too, but still. And finally,Michael from Lost makes the final disastrous compassionate action by bringing the two survivors on board against his orders, starting the world wide plague.
The “everyone for themselves” philosophy isn’t something you see too often in a mainstream horror film.
Good points, Raygun. I still think they could have done a film with all your good points and not have it make me want to write angry letters to the directors (or writers, or somebody).
I like your way of looking at things, Raygun, but I don’t really think the movie differs from other zombie movies too much in that regard. In fact, a big point of Romero-inspired zombie movies is that irrationally treating a zombie as if it retained some part of the human being it used to be is a one-way ticket to having your brain eaten.
Overall I liked the movie, although I kept hoping that the kids would die in every scene they were in.
What bugged me about this movie was every time they needed something to happen to make the plot move forward, they went with the first inane idea they had; no one said, “Wait, that’s stupid. Let’s think of something better.” Over and over again, things happened in this movie ONLY to move the plot forward, with no internal sense to the story at all.
I was appalled to see that Danny Boyle was involved with the process, but then I pictured him going, “No, yeah, that’s great,” then saying silently to himself: “Mwahahaha, the sequel is gonna suck so much it’s gonna make the first one look EVEN BETTER by comparison. My reputation is assured.”
I actually agree with the doctors actions on this one. She has found someone who was infected but not affected by the virus. That just screams an opportunity to create a vaccine.
The problem was the Army IT people, who apparently thought it would be OK for a civilain who is a glorified maintenance man to have an access pass that allowed access to the deepest and most secure parts of the military complex :eek:
I mostly enjoyed the movie, with a few parts here and there bugging the hell out of me. One of the main ‘little’ ones being the fact that apparently Volvos (IIRC) are so well made that they are NBC proof. :dubious:
I don’t know about anyone else, but assoon as I saw Robert Carlysle I knew he was going to get infected & fuck shite up. The first time I saw him was in trainspotting, so he’ll always be Begbie to me!
By the way, I rented this pretty recently. I have a question, did anyone else think the same thing I did about the mother?
I thought that she had been infected, but rather than not being affected by the virus, I thought it had run its course. She had become a zombie, killed people and eaten them, and somehow returned to normal, but she remembered everything. I got that impression when the doctor was interviewing her and she didn’t respond with anything but a cold stare.
I agree she was probably affected to some degree… I’m not a 100% sure she ate any people, but I’m certain she ate the cat.
That said, people left to endure a state of terror without human company for long periods have a very hard time readjusting to the presence of other people, as was shown much more ably in I Am Legend.
