28 Years Later (2025) review

Close to three decades have passed since the "Rage Virus" wrecked the U.K., so as part of a "rite of passage," Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) takes his son Spike (Alfie Williams) to the "mainland" so he can gain experience killing "the infected" - they return safely, but when Spike realizes his father is having an affair, he goes with his sickly mother Isla (Jodie Comer) to visit the truly eccentric Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) hoping he can cure her "condition."  It contains two disproportionate sections: the first is a decent bonding trip between a dad and his kid while the second is a protracted Lord of the Rings-type journey through green pastures that finishes up in the darkest way imaginable, with Kelson melting down Isla and handing Spike her skull.  Not only does it not match the original movie in terms of scrappy (and glitchy) intensity (cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle recorded it with the iPhone 15 Pro Max instead of prosumer Canon digital cameras), it thinks it can be a "zombie tearjerker" (which it fails at miserably).  Fiennes is very good as the Kurtz-like physician (who covers himself in iodine) and the soundtrack by hip-hop trio Young Fathers is noteworthy ... yet I have a feeling the follow-ups to this aren't going to be much better if they take the same approach.