Directed By Nia DaCosta

Starring – Ralph Fiennes, Jack O’Connell, Alfie Williams

The Plot – As Spike (Williams) is inducted into Jimmy Crystal’s (O’Connell) gang on the mainland, Dr. Kelson (Fiennes) makes a startling discovery that could alter the world.

Rated R for strong bloody violence, gore, graphic nudity, adult language throughout, and brief drug use

28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE – Official Trailer (HD)

POSITIVES

Between a divisive predecessor and the directorial deviation to the frequently inconsistent DaCosta, there was minimal optimism that Danny Boyle’s original zombie franchise would or could ever return to prominence, a fear that thankfully was silenced in a secondary installment that is most notably an improvement from its previous film, even while still failing to recapture the lightning in a bottle that was “28 Days Later”. The transition from Boyle to DaCosta feels seamlessly appealing to the undertaking of this franchise and the splendor of its senses, without feeling detracting or distracting the integrity of its many brutal sequences, particularly DaCosta’s continued reliance on iPhone cameras and first person rigs to capture the kinds of distinct angles that effortlessly immerse an audience in the plight of these characters, but never in ways that feel experimentally enacted simply for the sake of expression. While the tools are very much the same between these respective visionaries, DaCosta breeds a uniqueness to the grandeur and scale of this world-building that naturally makes it feel within the parameters of the same depicted world throughout four films and nearly twenty-five years of cinema between them, and with the breathtakingly intoxicating framing of Sean Bobbitt’s scintillating cinematography, helping to stretch and expand upon so much of the set designs within the titular Bone Temple, we have what I truly feel is the most beautifully shot installment of the entire franchise, a claim that many Boyle enthusiasts, like myself, will be out to dispel before they’ve even seen the film. Despite DaCosta reveling in the confines of her own alluring style, she also isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty, with regards to carnage candy, featuring some of the series most viscerally brutal gore of the entire franchise, with an ample dependency upon practicality, that helps elicit impressive feats of strength from these superhuman antagonists. It’s very much a film that earns every inch of its intended R-rating, especially one such sequence during the beginning of the film that features a familiar dong-swinging flesh-eater named Samson, who cracks open a cold one when he’s in the mood to feast on something cerebral, and though the violence leaves more than a lasting impression during the moments it’s unceremoniously channeled, it’s balanced substantially with some profoundly rich and endearing social commentary in another indulging screenplay from Alex Garland, proving once more that this franchise is trying to convey messaging, instead of resting on the laurels of its buckets of blood. As to where the previous film’s material pertained to societal regression, nationalism, and even the unavoidable confrontation towards death, “The Bone Temple” wrestles with the ages old conflict of faith versus science, the motivation factor for fear, and even existentialism in a post-apocalyptic landscape, in ways that make it so much more enlightening than a majority of zombie movies, and while this is certainly nothing new to a franchise that forces audiences to reflect on the societal flaws of its own traditions, in the case of Spike, Jimmy Crystal, and Dr. Kelson’s respective arcs, it does challenge us to answer questions about the need to fight to save humanity, as opposed to the need to tear everything down and start anew, crafting a surprising amount of outlooking optimism and more importantly, hope, to a world condemned by fear, isolation, and especially misconception. The storytelling isn’t perfect, as the focus between these characters is drastically imbalanced, but it does feel like the next logical progression following where the previous film left off, particularly with the emergence of this radicalized cult to a protagonist like Spike, who has not only just conquered his own coming of age story on the back of losing a loved one, but now finds himself defined by the fear of being in the wrong place at the wrong time to those who picked him up in that moment of grief. As for surprises, the film has an incredibly eclectic collection of European artists to set a precedent of personality for the rest of the film’s duration, though nothing that is ever even close to the sharp tonal shift of “28 Years Later’s” closing sequence of Jimmy Crystal’s arrival. The closest to pushing that limit comes from an unforeseen musical number involving Iron Maiden, serving as the ice-breaking moment of interaction between Jimmy’s gang and Kelson, and while I would normally be against this in a world so dire and at times hopeless, DaCosta’s initially established precedent towards incorporating sporadic doses of humor to the movie’s tone does go a long way in fighting back against some sporadic shifts that threaten the movie’s edgier material, allowing her to showcase a vulnerability in these characters, made all the more effective by the masterful performances of Ralph Fiennes and Jack O’Connell lending so much energy and endearment to their respective portrayals. In controlling much of the movie’s emotional weight, Fiennes builds upon initially established empathy with some touchingly intimate interactions alongside the undead Samson, offering the experienced actor ample time to flesh out the speculated psychology of his isolation factor, and O’Connell, despite not reaching the soaring heights of his other antagonist turn in last year’s “Sinners”, does brandish a cruelty and saturated sleaziness that makes him such an unpredictable powder keg of a character who feels like he could blow at any given moment, proving once more the effortless knack that Jack has for portraying polarizing characters, especially when he earns the attention by force or threat.

NEGATIVES

Similar to other secondary installments in trilogies, this one also suffers from a weakly underwritten opening act, which required a bit more time to settle in and feel compelled by the journey that this movie had directly in front of it. Part of this problem certainly stems from the movie’s glaringly underwhelming decision to push Spike into the background of the movie’s focus, in favor of more consistent depiction towards Jimmy and Kelson, leaving him the kind of surface level development that requires the camera to zero in on his responses, instead of paying him off with meaningful dialogue, but just as much conflict pertains to how long it takes Garland to set the movements to motion of this inevitable confrontation, where the first forty-five minutes of the film conform to ample amount of primary set-up, in order to flesh out a narrative that still feels undercooked by today’s trilogy standards. While I love the series’ ability to transition the focus of its installments between many characters, Spike’s abandonment here really undervalues the heart and soul that the character brought to that previous chapter, in turn undercutting the magnitude of Williams performance, and considering the second and third acts are built upon the aspects of inevitable confrontation that were promised throughout the movie’s marketing, it makes the inferiority of that opening act feel all the more glaringly evident, where not even some impressive depiction of aforementioned gore can save it from the perils of pacing that still plague this occasionally erratic franchise. On top of this, “The Bone Temple” is another example of a tragically unfulfilling ending, though not to the self-destructive levels of its inferior predecessor. Aside from an awesome surprise in the closing moments of the film that has me anxiously ready for the greenlit third installment of this trilogy, the resolution of the scene before it is every bit gravitationally illogical as it is sloppily rushed and all together unfulfilling, with the logics and schematics of this checkmate move of the conflict feeling distractingly impossible, and an abrupt cut away alongside a transparently predictable jump scare giving the editing the escapist opportunity to cut away at the moment when it truly mattered the most. While it’s obvious to interpret just what transpired, it does little for the magnitude of the pay-off, which peters away during a moment that could’ve easily mustered applause, and considering two films back-to-back have now compromised my trust and investment to films that were otherwise solid in their consistency, it does have me worried for that third and final installment, especially considering this will serve as the exclamation point to a five film franchise.

OVERALL
“28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” brings back the brutal bite to a withering franchise, brandishing a gut-wrenchingly gruesome and ferociously frenetic direction from Nia DaCosta, who seamlessly takes the reigns from Danny Boyle’s expressively impressionable influence. With mesmerizingly infectious performances from Ralph Fiennes and Jack O’Connell, as well as a thematically hefty script from Alex Garland, this sequel is able to overcome some of its momentary flaws in imbalanced characterization and unfulfilling resolution, setting the stage for one feast of finale for its famished fandom

My Grade: 7.5 or B-