I generally don't bother to blog about movies that I've seen. But since one of my first blog posts was about 28 Days Later, I feel obliged to post something about 28 Weeks Later. Spoilers below.

The reason I liked 28 Days so much was because I'm a huge fan of realism in movies. I can believe that there is a particularly virulent disease spreading that turns people into rage zombies. Beyond that, I didn't have to accept anything else in 28 Days at face value; everything could have plausibly happened. What makes the movie so great is that the realism raises several interesting questions about the fragility of modern society and human nature.

Although I enjoyed 28 Weeks, it lacked the realism that 28 Days had, making it significantly less intriguing. Here are my three main bones to pick with the film:

• Don, the father and one of the bigger protagonists, would not have had full access to everything. Sure, I understand the need to get British citizens involved in the rebuilding process. But seriously. How would he somehow have access to everything in a highly sensitive, heavily militarized operation?
• In the event of an attack, civilians would not be herded into a "safe" area in large numbers. If the virus did come back, the way to clearly keep it from spreading would be to have an immediate lock-down. Herding people to a "safe" area puts them out in the open to be bitten and in a room that, if breached, would have dire consequences for everybody in it. If everybody had simply been locked up exactly where they were when the outbreak started, the disease wouldn't have been able to spread.
• Code Red. Really? The solution is to immediately kill everybody? I'm not buying.

That kind of poor military planning makes Iraq look like strategic genius.

That's not to say that the film failed to raise any good questions. Two very good ones came up.

Should Don have left his wife?

The noble answer to this question is of course no. But, when you think about it, he had no weapon in his hands, and his wife was clearly going to get infected anyway. Their two kids were still alive, and the dad had a chance of surviving. Better one parent than none, right?

How far will the virus spread?

At the end of the movie we saw that the virus spread to the mainland of Europe. The question now is how far the virus will spread. Will natural barriers like mountains prevent it from spreading far, such as the Alps, Carpathians, and Urals? What about deserts in the Middle East? Could the zombies make it past these obstacles and infect Asia or Africa? If it did travel to Asia, could it hop across the Bering Strait to North America? They would have to go through Siberia, which would make it a little hard for the zombies to run and bite people, since they would freeze. If they did get frozen, does the virus stay alive and dormant?

Will more people resistant to the virus emerge? If they do, is everybody screwed because they can pass for not being infected and get into secured territory?

This is a particularly interesting question because it will have to be addressed in 28 Months Later, planning for which has already started. Stay tuned for that one.