his sequel to the frightening 28 Days Later, complete with a sufficient amount of disturbing jump-out-of-your seat shocks, is bloodier and more action-filled than the first. Sadly, it is a bit of a disappointment when the movie churns out like a reality TV survival show with no narrative story formation.

Directed and co-written by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, who takes over from Trainspotting's Danny Boyle, the sequel to 28 Days Later shows us the first days of the viral outbreak that turned England into a zombie-savaged wasteland.

The story unfolds in near-future England, the site of a war between the living and the undead. The rage virus that turned victims into crazed cannibals in the earlier film has died out; London is dead, and the zombified masses have devoured everyone in sight and finally starved to death.

Don (Robert Carlyle of The Full Monty), a survivor of the original zombie attack, is consumed with guilt because he had to leave his wife Alice (Catherine McCormack) behind. Six months later, the mainland of Great Britain has been quarantined and Don joins the London reconstruction effort. He is reunited with his two kids –(17-year-old Imogen Poots and 12-year-old Mackintosh Muggleton), who were out of the country when the virus first spread.

Don, who believes his wife died in the zombie attacks, soon discovers that Alice is very much alive – but, sadly, infected with the "rage virus," even though she isn't among the walking dead.

But, the virus breaks out again - you knew it was going to happen. The military is back on their kill-them-all policy, forcing citizens to flee from both the infected and the soldiers. Don oversees the infrastructure of a fortified "green zone" established for preliminary resettlement.

Fresnadillo, who wrote the script with Rowan Joffe and Jesus Olmo, provokes the thought that 28 Weeks is a commentary about our war in Iraq: Don's family life, for example, eerily resembles that of war-scarred Iraqis currently living under an American military presence.

The performances are fine, particularly Poots and Muggleton, who are effective as the two kids. There isn't much in the way of character development but Robert Carlyle makes the most of his underwritten character, and Lost's Harold Perrineau turns up as a helicopter pilot in a situation similar to a Grindhouse scene.

Many things happen in 28 Weeks Later, with a few entertaining scenes involving the military’s attempt to exterminate the spreading virus. Action scenes aside, the movie doesn't have the same bite as the original. By the time 28 Weeks Later figures out where its going it becomes pretty evident that the movie only exists as a setup for a third installment.