28 Years Later: The Bone Temple info:
Director: Nia DaCosta
Writer: Alex Garland
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Jack O’Connell, Alfie Williams, and Erin Kellyman
Hello and welcome to another week here at 1guysmindlessmoviereviews.com. As I’m sitting here writing this, we are in the middle of some post-season NFL football games, some typical January weather, and Hollywood awards season. Between now and the Academy Awards, I’m going to try to watch some of the potential nominees. But in between, I get to see some crazy stuff, like I just witnessed when I watched this the other night.
My pick this week was “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple,” and it was a ride. After watching “28 Years Later” just a few months ago, the story was still fresh in my mind, and both my son and I were eager to see what would happen next. But before I say too much. Now is the time for my usual spoiler warning. If you don’t want to know what happens in this, then I suggest you read another one of my reviews here and then come back here.
Alright, for the rest of you brave souls… “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” was directed by Nia DaCosta (who is starting to get bigger directing gigs lately). This entry was once again written by Alex Garland (who has written all of these except “28 Weeks Later”). This is definitely not a movie you want to watch without seeing at least the most recent one first. You will miss a significant portion of the character development and backstory that explains how we arrived at our current situation. You can also read my review of that one, which is located here.
This movie can mostly be summed up with one word… Fiennes. Seriously… how much more can this man do to carry a film? How is it possible that he doesn’t own an Academy Award yet? Ok, I guess he could own one, but he hasn’t won one yet for some reason. Even though this is an end-of-the-world type of movie, it doesn’t stop him from just taking over his role of Dr. Kelson. If you saw the last one, you know that Dr. Kelson played a big role for both Spike (Williams) and his mother (Jodie Cromer).
In fact, that’s the two biggest stories this time around. Dr. Kelson and his evolving encounters with an infected he named Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry) and Spike, with his involvement with the “Fingers” led by Sir Jimmy Crystal (O’Connell). There isn’t much “zombie” action in this one, with most of the action scenes taking place with the Jimmy gang. But we are still obviously in that world, as there is plenty of stuff to remind us. Let’s get caught up on the two main characters in “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple”.
The last time we saw Spike, he was saved by Sir Jimmy and his gang (The Fingers) at the end of the last film. Now, he is stuck with them and doesn’t seem to have a way out of their sadistic ways. Sir Jimmy leads this group with fear and makes them do seriously evil things. Jimmy Ink (Kellyman) is the only one who’s looking out for Spike here, as she sort of takes him under her wing to keep him safe.
Dr. Kelson, on the other hand, is in the exact same place we saw him last, living in an underground bunker in the midst of all the bone/skull temples. He starts to have an increasingly interesting encounter with Samson as he wants to be hit with a morphine dart. Kelson soon realizes that when he is under the influence, he appears to calm down and be almost human-like again. Eventually, right when Kelson is almost out of morphine, and his only option is to put Samson to sleep for good, he finally says a word.
It’s quite a stunning moment in a movie that is all about death and people dealing with the end of times. This is also the same time that Kelson and the Fingers meet up for the first time. He quickly makes Samson a concoction of medicine to see if he can cure him, since he has to meet the Fingers the next evening. Sir Jimmy and his group think that Kelson is Satan, so he puts on one hell of a show when they show up to keep up the charade.
As odd as it sounds, this may be the best part of “28 Years Later: the Bone Temple”. Seeing Fiennes’ Kelson dance around to Iron Maiden is an absolute treat for the eyes. It should be silly, but it comes off as just amazing, dark, and fits into the movie’s flow just great. It’s even sort of fitting when he gets mortally stabbed at the end. Sir Jimmy meets his end, and Dr. Kelson’s cure for the infected dies with him.
Overall, this movie exceeds expectations. It is way different from the other titles in the franchise, but somehow still finds its own stride within itself. Hopefully that makes sense since it does to me. Ralph Fiennes once again shines in this very good performance. There are still some unanswered questions, like what happened to the pregnant lady who escaped. But more importantly… Jim (Cillian Murphy) is back! Hopefully, we’ll get another whole movie with him and Spike. Even though this feels too high, I am sort of compelled to give this the same rating as its predecessor… 7 out of 10.
Watch or wait?
So, should you watch “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” now or wait till it’s available to stream? That depends on whether or not you’ve seen the previous film yet. If you have, then I think it would be worth your time to see this on the big screen as well. If for no other reason, then you should do it just to watch Fiennes as Dr. Keslon one more time.
Ok, that’s it for me this week. So, now it’s your turn. Have you seen “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” yet? If so, what are your thoughts? Do you like it better than the other entries of the franchise? Did you like Ralph Fiennes in this as much as I did? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below, and I will be back with another mindless movie review of some sort next week.
