28 Years Later: The Bone Temple

Hm. If I'm being honest, it’s a little disappointing coming off the sheer high that was the previous film.

It used the character of Spike to take us on a journey of two halves, those being nihilism and optimism, hope, and love. Through his eyes, that film becomes more powerful as you see each of these halves bleed into each other; it's like you're experiencing this world through the eyes of a child trying to comprehend and make sense of a world which was shielded away from him.

This movie opts to tell you a very similar story; however, these two halves are very much told in isolation, and sadly, I just don't think they add much more to this that wasn't already explored in a more fascinating way in the previous movie.

This very much feels like the second installment in a trilogy; it feels a bit rushed and like it just amped up the intensity for the sake of being intense.

I don't feel like I learned much about Jimmy and his gang, or as much as I would've liked for the amount of time that we spend with them. Spike is cast aside, which feels a bit like a misstep. He feels lost amongst the story. And in that half of the story, the person who I think is the most fascinating, Jimmy Ink, I needed a bit more to understand her turn, what was going on inside her head.

Where I think this movie shines is in the characterisation and exploration of Dr. Kelson, expertly portrayed by Ralph Fiennes. It feels, in a sense, like it is interested in further exploring the humanity in the infected, and it's doing so in a way that feels additional to the previous movie.

It's become very apparent in this franchise that the real plague infecting the world is humanity, and Jimmy represents that, but I don't think we interrogate that enough until we get to the best scene of the film, which is between him and Dr. Kelson.

It was in this scene that I was reminded why this franchise is so wrought for discussion. It was also in this scene, though, that I found myself longing for the rest of the movie to bear some of this importance.

It's interesting because I think they opted to tell a lot of the story through explicit violence and the perverse nature of humanity, while I do think that comes across and it's absolutely horrendous to watch, in a good way, I think I'm more interested in what makes the people tick instead of seeing explicit violence.

Not to mention this film also ends much like the first film with what feels like studio interference. I cannot believe that this is the second film in this trilogy that has a really poignant ending that is completely unravelled by an MCUification of cameos just to get people excited for more