28 Years Later, the long-awaited sequel from director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland, is now in theaters, and while the movie has been met with a very positive reception from critics (it's currently sitting at 92% on Rotten Tomatoes), it's proven to be much more of a divisive experience for general audiences.
In many ways, the movie is a worthy follow-up to the original, with strong performances, engaging protagonists, and plenty of gruesome "zombie" carnage for the horror hounds. It's also a bit of a head-scratcher at times, with some bizarre plot and character developments that do offset the drama to at least some extent.
Big swings and bold choices are always commendable, but when they don't pay off, they can completely disengage your audience.
Major spoilers follow.
Doctor Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) presenting Spike (Alfie Williams) with the freshly cleaned skull of his dearly departed mother Isla (Jodie Comer) and Samson the distractingly well-endowed Alpha Rager running around like a deranged porn star are just a couple of moments that seem to have left cinema goers either chuckling through what was clearly supposed to be an emotional scene or looking around in disbelief.
But it's the ending that really stands out as a baffling addition.
After his mother passes, Alfie decides not to return home, leaving baby Isla for his father (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) to look after while he fends for himself in the wild. When a group of infected attack his campfire, Alfie receives some unexpected aid from Jack O'Connel's Jimmy - who we met as a child in the opening scene - and his crew of Jimmy Savile impersonator ninjas (really), who proceed to take down the infected in a scene that feels like it would be more at home in a Guy Ritchie movie.
The sequence is surely destined to go down as one of the biggest WTF moments of the year (if not horror movie history), and is tonally jarring to the extent that a lot of fans have accused it of completely derailing the film.
Perhaps the scene is indicative of what we can expect from Nia DaCosta's sequel, The Bone Temple (heaven forbid), but it just feels so out of place here - especially since it plays out almost immediately after the movie's most powerful and devastating scene.
What do you think? Was 28 Years Later's ending really that bad, or are people are overexaggerating? Drop us a comment down below.
According to the official synopsis, "It’s been almost three decades since the rage virus escaped a biological weapons laboratory, and now, still in a ruthlessly enforced quarantine, some have found ways to exist amidst the infected. One such group of survivors lives on a small island connected to the mainland by a single, heavily-defended causeway. When one of the group leaves the island on a mission into the dark heart of the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders, and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors as well."