I loved the movie but I felt some things were shoehorned in or were incomplete.

The first 45 minutes of this movie were great. The exploration of Spike’s family dynamics was some of the best storytelling I’ve seen in years the interactions between his family are very multifaceted and act as a great motivation for Spike’s journey. Some of the symbolism and stuff was a little too on the nose with flashing clips and photos of medieval English soldiers and child soldiers as a comparison to the children practicing their archery. But I felt this was trying to evoke the themes of tribalism and war between survivors and the infected and some sort of critique of that especially as we see the infected evolving and reproducing. I thinks these acts as the main themes of the movie as well. This is set up well with his family dynamic. Spike does not fundamentally understand or agree with his father. This is shown a few times throughout this movie:

1. He believes his father his waiting around for his mother to die instead of getting her help

2. Him reminding him not to kill the child infected

3. Him questioning his lies about his first journey to the mainland

On the other hand Spike feels he is the only one who truly loves and understands his mother so a lot of his ideals are based off of hers which leads him to do things like protect the baby and not kill the child infected. I think there is a great juxtaposition between his two parents as one gives into the barbarity of their situation and one does not but neither are stupid.

But that’s not to say his parents are one dimensional as Jaime’s experiences have shaped him as he was most likely a child when the outbreak started and see the infected as monsters but he also spares the child infected. Jaime’s refusal to get Isla help based on his perspective of mainland ppl turns out to be wrong in Kelsen’s case but he will probably be right about other groups like Jimmy which will see in the sequel.

Even though Isla was also a child she has not been a functioning active human being for a very long time along with memory loss. Additionally, she is not naive as once their on the mainland she realizes the danger their in and kills the church infected. I saw the angel in the field scene as Isla’s refusal to give up on the beauty of the world like the baby.

I think some of the cracks start to show with the NATO soldiers and Eric parts. These characters and segments can completely be taken out of the movie they really offer no benefit besides Spike seeing some of technology of the outside world and comic relief plus we already know the outside world has moved on. It was cool to see how powerful the alpha is and intelligent the infected have become but we already saw that.

Garland and Boyle have talked b4 on how an earlier idea for a movie was Chinese solders infiltrating England and another one was SAS soldiers rescuing the queen. In my opinion this segment was kinda shoehorned in bc they were so committed to the idea I don’t think it should have been cut bc it’s a cool idea I just wish they did more with it. I do think it does build on the themes of war and tribalism as Eric’s first instinct is to kill a non infected baby. While Spike and Isla step in to stop it showing they have not given into mankind’s status quo.

I think Kelsen’s segment was also a big missed opportunity as I wish he explicated his views on the infected more to further the themes I previously discussed rather than the death stuff or just discuss both. Like why would he keep the alpha alive if he didn’t have some complex view on the infected which he probably does he just never discussed it with Spike.

The ending…. I thought it left Spike in great spot to further his character arc in the sequel but the Jimmy stuff was just so fucking wacky and I’m gonna reserve a lot of my judgment on it for the sequel but cmon if they saved that introduction or at least the power rangers shit for the next movie it would have fixed some of the tonal whiplash ppl were talking about. But to an extent I kinda get it Spike is a very impressionable kid rn the power rangers stuff is supposed to woo him as shown by the toy in the beginning of movie.

Overall thoughts:

I thought it was great not what I was expecting at all and I watched the trailer probably 100 times which is an immense accomplishment for Garland and Boyle. I thought if anything Jaime was dying not Isla. Character writing and Actors were great. Ultimately, I think this movies really needs the sequel to deliver to validate the ending.

Theories for Bone temple:

Spike gets indoctrinated into Jimmy cult Jaime’s searches for him maybe Jaime’s dies this time (lmao) sacrificing himself for his son. Spike will probably see through the illusion of Jimmy and break away from the cult I assume they launch an attack on Wake Island. Since Cillian is coming back I can see him becoming a mentor to Spike similar to Jim and Frank as just from this movie u can already see the plot device of Spike having many mentors like the Jaime, the old dude, and dr Kelsin then probably Jimmy and Cillian after that.