28 Years Later: The Bone Temple Review

 

Alright the sequel is finally here. Let's hope it's just as good as the first.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is post-apocalyptic horror movie, and acts as both the sequel to 28 Years Later and the fourth installment in the 28 Days Later film series. Production was handled by Columbia Pictures, Decibel Films, and DNA Films with Sony Pictures Releasing handling distribution. While Alex Garland once again returns to write, the director this time around is Nia DaCosta.

The story is, after being rescued Spike has joined Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal and his gang. But the more he spends time with them, the more Spike soon realizes he needs to get away from these people. Meanwhile, at the Bone Temple Dr. Kelson is experimenting on one of the infected and could possibly be on the verge of a shocking revelation.

Initial Reaction

After seeing 28 Years Later I was naturally curious of where the story is gonna go from here. Although I did become more skeptical when I learned that Nia DaCosta was gonna be directing. The reason why that news didn't excite me is because she is 0-2 with me when it comes to movies. First there was that awful Candyman movie back in 2021. Then she went on to direct The Marvels were the less said about that train wreck the better. But I quickly changed my mind cause hey, at least this time around she'll have a good writer to work of with Alex Garland.

Cons

I've got nothing.

Middle Ground

The biggest mix is the story. Now there's a lot more good then the slightly uneven stuff so let's start off with that first. First I actually really dug Spike's story with Lord Jimmy. You're really rooting for the kid to find any way to escape from him, but at the same time the movie leaves you guessing if there's a possibly that Spike might become corrupted by him. Then we also have Dr. Kelson's story. Basically he sees one the infected Alphas (named Samson in this movie) and begins to see signs that maybe there's still a chance there's humanity behind what many believe are lost and savage souls. Sure that's happened with other zombie flicks, but I never considered the 28 movies to be zombie movies despite some similarities. These are people infected by a rage virus so Kelson's story of finding humanity behind the monsters work much better because the infected aren't the walking dead. Now with all of the good out of the way there were two slight issues. One is I wished Spike's story with this dad was touched upon here but it isn't. Hell I don't even think Spike's dad was even mentioned in a single sentence. And much like the previous movie we get some instances where things are setting us up for the third movie. Especially during that ending where a character from the previous movies makes their return.

Pros

Let me start off by praising Nia DaCosta since I've been giving her a grief since I started writing this review. She did a fantastic job with this movie's look. She managed to bring dark yet spectacular visuals this movie. Which I imagine wasn't an easy job to do when you had to go up against the previous director [Danny Boyle]. Now to get into the villain of the movie, Sir Lord Jimmy. This was a fantastic villain. Mainly because you're never gonna know what he's gonna do next. Maybe he'll be funny, maybe he'll be disturbingly violent, maybe a mixture of both. Sir Lord Jimmy always keeps you guessing and I loved every minute of that. Then there's the violence. Now I read and heard some cheeky comments and eye rolling complaints about this being torture porn similar to the likes of movies like Saw and Hostel. Yes the violence is very...strong to say the least. But I don't think people should be complaining about it. The main reason is because this is Sir Lord Jimmy. The guy loves over the top violence so wouldn't it make sense he would want his followers to be over the top violent? Also how much you wanna bet some of these people complained about the violence in this movie but we're perfectly fine with the Terrifier flicks? But I want to give my biggest praise to Ralph Fiennes and Jack O'Connell's performances. Fiennes gives a phenomenal performance as Dr. Kelson. He blended profound grief, quiet empathy, and wry humor perfectly. And he was the anchor the film's themes of humanity and hope. He also had an incredible moment during a headbanging ritual sequence. I'd love to go into more details than that, but I already felt like I said too much. Then there's Jack O'Connell and his role of Sir Lord Jimmy. O'Connell was a pure scene stealer. He perfectly brings out Jimmy's terrifying yet darkly funny personality. Not too mention but it seems like O'Connell was having a fun time playing this character. Overall these two fuel the film's other themes of good vs. evil and what survives in the ruins of humanity.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple may have some issues, but I still say you should give it a watch whether you're a fan of the franchise or not.

My final rating is, Good.

That's all for now. Due come back on Monday, Jan 19th, for my review of the newest Ben Affleck & Matt Damon film, The Rip. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.