Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Year: 2007
Country: United Kingdom/Spain/USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Zombie
Plot:
Trying to curtail the infection, a group of soldiers attempting to reopen London thinking it's safe from zombies inadvertently unleash the virus back on the population causing the original chaos all over again and forcing the few survivors to trail the remaining soldiers to get out alive.
Review:
Though it's better than the original, this one here doesn't have a whole lot really about it that works. One of the biggest problems is the fact that the film is just way too dull, as the middle section where they're going through the motions of re-adjusting to daily life is one of the longest, dullest sections in the film, coming completely with no action whatsoever amongst a general sea of nothing going on. The endless scenes of them going through the different sections of the city, from the abandoned homes to the different ways of fun, allow for plenty of scenes that are just downright deadly dull. These have no interest at all in them and are just thrown in for no absolute reason at all. There's also the film's maddening ability to get way too theatrical and artistic for no purpose, where this is loaded with scenes where it's just a close-up of the talker's mouths or of their eyes, and scenes throughout the film are presented by doing this, and it's distracting, unnecessary and just plain annoying. It has no bearing on anything other than an attempt to make it feel more artistic than it should.
That also goes for the shaking camera tactics that it loves to explore as there's a never-ending succession of scenes that are readily destroyed by the shaking camera making it impossible to see what's happening. That this occurs during most of the action scenes is even worse, allowing them to be ruined by the shaking camera tactic. That is the film's biggest issue here, that it rarely gets to do anything since it's mostly cut off by the tactic. The last flaw here is the running zombie's angle. This doesn't work at all, they're not scary, and even though it tries to get around them by calling them infected, they're still zombies and they don't work here.
Even among these flaws, there are some good parts here including the fact that there's a great bit more action here than expected. The opening assault on the family in their home following the retrieval of the kid makes for a frantic occurrence as the ultra-fast pace and brutal kills lead to a couple thrilling moments. The outbreak sequence in the control center is top-notch, bringing together three fantastic scenes in the questioning lab that starts the infection, the creepy scene in the containment area with the darkness hiding the gobbling and attacking of the victims, and finally the full-on fun of the attack on the populace in the streets. In a sea of chaos, they target, trap, attack, kill, and get killed by the others around them in a flurry of activity that is incredibly exciting and is one of the best scenes in the film. The last thing in here that works is the ending half, which includes the race to get to the safe spot in the city through the previous methods used to contain the creatures, is visually fun, exciting, and a little creepy at times. Together with the violence which isn't too terrible, this is all the film has to offer.
Overview: **.5/5
A barely-better sequel to a rather decent original, this one does come off well enough in certain areas but still has way too many drawbacks to be much more than that. Those who are fine with its negative qualities, are hardcore zombie fanatics, or appreciate the creative crew will still want to give this a shot while most others out there should heed caution here.
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