Danny Boyle’s ‘28 Years Later’ begins with eerie promise and striking visuals but loses steam midway, torn between horror and sentiment. It delivers in parts, though sky-high expectations keep it from making it truly memorable.

Following 2002’s ‘28 Days Later’ and 2007’s ‘28 Weeks Later,’ the gore-soaked third installment of the franchise, starring Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ralph Fiennes, is short on wit and narrative coherence.

28 Years Later is a captivating return to form that casts away cheap nostalgia and doubles down on the powerful nature the first movie was known for. Danny Boyle and Alex Garland recognized that the message of empathy versus conflict still carries a charge, and pick things up in a sweeping epic that doesn’t miss a heartbeat.