As a fan of zombie flicks, I looked forward to this movie. With Alex Garland writing and Danny Boyle directing, it promised to be a heavyweight entry in the genre. Instead, it’s a typical B movie dressed up as a tour de force—a very good-looking disappointment, give how high the bar was.
The story centers on a young boy (Rocco Haynes) crossing a zombie-ravaged coastal area of England in search of a doctor for his ailing mother (Jodie Comer). Minutely detailed cinematography and Boyle’s trademark shaky cameras and fast-cut action make for compelling pictures (everything looks and sounds convincing), but the quest is loud and earnest and full of nothing we haven’t seen before.
Instead of relatable characters, we get rehashed types (though the acting is good). Instead of tension, we get film-making—lots of it. You’re always aware that you’re watching an intricately made Danny Boyle story. There are attempts at philosophical depth in the form of Ralph Fiennes teaching our young hero the concept of Memento Mori, but it’s a level of contextualization that feels at best neither here nor there and at worst tautological. The film starts arbitrarily, then drags, then ends just because. Oh well. I can forgive Boyle because he gave us 28 Days Later. Maybe 28 Decades Later will rock us indubitably.