The fates of zombie apocalypse survivors become intertwined around towers of piled skulls in 2026's 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. This is a direct sequel to 2025's 28 Years Later, itself the third in the franchise that began with 2003's 28 Days Later. The Years Later films were both written by Alex Garland, the 2025 film was directed by Days Later director Danny Boyle while Bone Temple was directed by Nia DaCosta, best known for directing The Marvels. While Bone Temple is nowhere near as bad as The Marvels, lending credence to the idea that it was Disney or Marvel studio interference that sank that film, Bone Temple is still a substantial step down in quality from its immediate predecessor.
Bone Temple picks up the story of Spike (Alfie Williams), the character whose coming of age arc was at the centre of the 2025 film. He fades a bit into the background in DaCosta's film and none of the other characters fill the void. Ralph Fiennes becomes the closest thing to a protagonist and his warm, charismatic portrayal as Dr. Kelson is expanded as we learn about his love for '80s rock and his attempts to cure one victim of the Rage Virus, a hulking man he's nicknamed Samson, played by Chi Lewis-Parry with a large prosthetic penis. Like other individuals affected by the Rage Virus, this franchise's version of the zombie, Samson has essentially become an animal, roaming the forests of Britain sans clothing. The film's intimacy coordinator, Vanessa Coffey, insisted that prosthetic genitals and buttocks be used instead of Danny Boyle's preference for actual nudity. This was to be in compliance with UK labour guidelines related to nudity in the presence of minors on set, in this case Alfie Williams. I find it amusing to contemplate the workable moral logic of instilling in a young person the idea that nudity is so shameful that even plastering an oversized plastic member to oneself is somehow preferable to actual exposure. Danny Boyle apparently came up with an inworld explanation that the Rage Virus causes the genitals to enlarge, which seems like a surreptitious taking the piss to me.
Where Boyle's previous films worked as relentless, high tension blends of action and horror, DaCosta slows thing down to a gentle, contemplative tone that gives a not unpleasant Gorillas in the Mist quality to the story between Kelson and Samson but which undercuts Spike's story as he is first initiated into and then struggles to survive among a gang of Satanists.
A new castmember joins for this film, Erin Kellyman, who seems to be a favourite for modern progressive filmmakers. She appeared in leftwing deconstructionist projects like The Green Knight (the adaptation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight that I loath), The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and the Willow TV series Disney wants us to forget happened. In this movie, she has an anti-patriarchal awakening as a member of the Satanist gang, which isn't so bad in itself, but Kellyman has so consistently appeared in movies with obtrusive politics that she inevitably brings a certain vibe.
I am not one to say that wokeness in itself makes a movie bad. Certain prominent rightwingers, like the Daily Wire and Elon Musk, have lately made the mistake that in order to make good film and television, all they need do is not be woke. Musk has just recently produced an AI version of The Odyssey under this theory, which is hilariously bad by all reports--I haven't seen it yet. I kind of feel like I should just to show the potential for failure in all partisan driven productions, of whatever persuasion.
No comments:
Post a Comment