28 Smurfs Later: The Sequel!!!
Yesterday, I remarked about how the apocalyptic 28 Days Later ripped off "The Purple Smurfs". Today, I would like to further my observations about how the milquetoast sequel, 28 Months Later, ripped off UNICEF. 28 Weeks Later is a Hollywoodified, cash-drenched CGI extrapolation of a good idea that drums in the the viewer a heavy-handed allegory about the incompetence of the American military during a forced occupation of foreign territory. Long story short: Quarantined London is now under US-led NATO control and the first groups of citizens are allowed back into the city. The virus is unknowingly brought back into the "green zone" and chaos ensues - with two cute kids, whom you know are going to be not worth the while of the human race.
One scene of the film, provided predictably in the trailer, is the veritable firebombing of the streets of London a la North Vietnam or Dresden or Baghdad or wherever. Infected and terrified people alike are incinerated. Depressing? Sure. Indescriminate killing by the military and the infected. Who's the real enemy here? And who really suffers?
UNICEF, in a campaign in 2005, had already dealt with the issue of indescriminate bombing and the suffering of the innocents - and in the sexier language of French, as well. Granted, these bombs are not falling on frothing, hopping purple smurfs. They're falling on la-la, la-la-la-la happy, utopian blue smurfs. But the bombs fall on the entire Smurf Village commune. It's a nice touch for a post-Cold War message to us Cold War kids. And in less than thirty seconds, it packs more punch than a ninety minute injection of faux-adrenaline with creepy music and jarring camera angles.
Again, Hollywood cannot come up with an original idea to save its life. Personally, I found the bombs raining upon the smurfy population much more compelling. The lonely, forlorn shoe of a fallen Smurfette says it all.
Enjoy the ad.
