Written by: Alex Garland
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Jack O’Connell, Alfie Williams, Erin Kellyman, Chi Lewis-Parry
Rating: [2.5/5]
At times, no matter how much you try, some properties and stories simply will not connect with you. A reality that, at some point, you must just take in stride. Continually, that is where I find myself with 28 Years Later and its latest entry: The Bone Temple. A film attempting its hardest to delve into heady topics but does so in the most unserious manner where you waste the talents of Ralph Fiennes in the process.
Saved by a group of infected, the Fingers, a group led by Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell), challenge Spike (Alfie Williams) to fight his way into acceptance in the group if he hopes to survive the way they treat outsiders. Meanwhile, Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) continues his studies on the infected and believes he has reached a breakthrough where it appears one of the infected could be reversing the impacts of the Rage Virus epidemic with the hope for a brighter future.
Having only respected one and mostly disliked all of the other films within this universe, I have come to the conclusion the world Alex Garland and Danny Boyle have created simply does not work for me. A strange thing to say considering I very much appreciate their bodies of work as a whole. This time, they inject some new blood in the director’s chair in Nia DaCosta, whose work I also enjoy, and even she cannot make this horrifically cynical world something digestible for me.
After the strangely abrupt ending of the last film where Spike meets this strange group of individuals wearing blond wigs, it begged the question of where this storyline would go, and never did I imagine it would center so fiercely on the idea of all of these individuals carrying the name “Jimmy” and all being Satan worshippers. Certainly a decision that was made and one that dominates the majority of this runtime as the lead Jimmy tries to maintain control of the others by preaching to be the true son of Satan. A perverse inversion of the typical way religion is utilized in these settings. In a way it makes sense given the demented world these characters traverse and the fear of the infected constantly surrounding them.
The film then oscillates between Spike’s attempted survival to stick with the Jimmys and Kelson potentially finding a way to reverse the Rage Virus. The more we received the latter storyline, the more I found myself invested in that one compared to everything happening with the Jimmys. A stark dichotomy between the two, where Kelson’s journey has this impactful feeling to it while we then have to go back to the demented Jimmys doing all of their nonsense. The moment those two paths converge at the Bone Temple, it just continues to go downhill.
Everything with the Jimmys represents what I dislike about these films, where gore and violence transpire without a sense of meaningful purpose other than some thinly veiled soliloquies by the head Jimmy. Soliloquies devoid of anything impactful to say but rather an excuse to simply brutalize others, as he takes every given opportunity to make these Jimmys prove themselves to him. You could almost forget these films are centered within a zombie world. Nothing about this even remotely worked, only further proving that I love everything Alex Garland does when operating in science fiction, but when he writes in this zombie universe, none of it clicks.
Yet another one of these films carrying the number 28 that I remain out of step with the majority of others, who find deeper understanding and meaning in these films seemingly than I do. While I can appreciate everything happening with Kelson even going back to the previous film, the continued focus on Spike and Jimmys carries nothing of real interest and only further accentuates the gory violence and gruesomeness. The balance between these elements sat too far to the side of these Satan-worshipping Jimmys, and the power struggle to maintain the demented control between this group of hooligans did not entertain me in the slightest. Perhaps the trilogy capper will finally be the one to win me over, but given the way this one concluded, I find that hard to believe.
Films with Josh 
