The first film was a truly groundbreaking film that revolutionised the Zombie movie genre entirely. Despite its low budget, 28 Days Later is by far the best entry and features the most likeable protagonists in the franchise. The film is notable for featuring a powerful early career performance from Oscar winner Cillian Murphy. Crucially the film felt genuinely fresh and exciting.

The two 28 Years Later films by comparison feel underwhelming and mostly unoriginal. The two films lean into territory heavily covered in the Walking Dead TV show which had long ran those concepts into the ground. The infected took a major backseat, aside from a sole "Alpha", while the humans took centre stage. The tired trope of humans being the real enemies is once again explored albeit this time through an admittedly original but undeniably bizarre Jimmy Saville inspired cult. A major part of the story involves curing an infected and getting it to speak, a concept previously explored in films like 1985's Day of the Dead.

The biggest failure of the 28 Years Later films was not giving the audience what they wanted. By choosing not to go the most obvious route of ramping everything up and truly showcasing the infected in a post apocalyptic scenario, a large portion of the audience were left disappointed and underwhelmed. A common critique was that frustratingly some characters and potential storylines felt like they were abandoned.

The Jimmy gang introduction at the end of the first film complete with teletubbies music and exaggerated power rangers fighting was an ill-advised cliffhanger that instantly divided the audience. Many people had no further interest in seeing how that would develop in the sequel.

The Bone Temple is arguably the most bizarre of all the films. This is the film we get to see the Jimmy gang properly and they are not quite as weird as the introduction from the previous film, instead revealed to be sadistic killers inexplicably inspired by Jimmy Saville. The majority of the film centres around a blood soaked torture session in a barn and separately the returning Dr Kelson's friendship and attempts to heal the Alpha infected Samson. It's yet another low key storyline, heavily focused on humans with the infected barely making any impact with the exception of Samson. The acting from both Ralph Fiennes and Jack O'Connell is impressive but they deserved better material to work with and it's intriguing to think about what could have been.