Man, this whips. Don’t know how it compares to the first Years yet (my favorite movie of 2025) but also who cares, they’re doing very different things and they both rule. Ralph Fiennes isn’t going to get an Oscar nom for this but he really, really should. Simply an amazing performance. Cannot wait for No. 3.
I think part three got a soft greenlight already but the A- Cinemascore for a horror movie is huge for word of mouth.
'28 Years Later: The Bone Temple' Is No. 1 Friday With $5.6 Million Box Office: 'Avatar: Fire And Ash' Bests '28 Years Later: Bone Temple' with $17M+ What framing to believe?! The Deadline article at one point accidentally refers to the first Years as The Bone Temple, lol. edit: oh yeah looks like these numbers do in fact suck. Really hope it gains steam
I think it will, basically everyone who has seen it likes it. It’s just a terrible release weekend. Going up against the highest grossing series of all time, plus the NFL playoffs, plus there’s really cold weather across the Midwest/east coast. Not really fair of those articles to compare it to 28 Years’ cushy June release.
The thing is it doesn’t have the anticipation of 28YL because it’s no longer a franchise coming back after being gone for decades. Plus, it’s a spin-off and it basically requires you to see the previous one. On top of that, it really feels like advertising didn’t pick up for it until the past month or two, where 28YL had that great first trailer for months. If the third one doesn’t happen, it still ends on a pretty solid, hopeful note. It’s not like it’s a cliffhanger like 28YL had.
The Number of the Beast scene was obviously the best part of this, but I laughed to myself very hard at Samson, now with complete control of his cognitive faculties, walking upon a guy mid-crucifixion with zero context of how or why, and just deciding to completely ignore it lol
Kind of a shame that Kelson figures out the cure and then dies a few hours later lol Gimme another film with Cillian back, though!
We're spoiler-tagging in here? A+ misdirection on the marketing of this. The third act is executed so well that is hard for me to imagine being disappointed. About as dark as I expected in a different way, although the "charity" scene was absolutely brutal. Thought Alfie Williams was the lifeblood of the last film, but don't mind him having a smaller piece here - O'Connell is pitch-perfect, and Fiennes is is giving the performance of a lifetime. Bone Temple sequence is seriously incredible, don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it, and I think the temple itself is one of my favorite horror setpieces ever. Lacks some of the chaos of Boyle's direction, but DaCosta did a great job with the more dramatic/human elements, even if they're less prevalent here. Really cool how esoteric and oddball this whole thing was, like Clockwork Orange with medieval torture lol. Honestly didn't need this to tie into Days or bring Cillian bad, but I'm so happy with these two installment that I am confident they can pull it off without it feeling too fan-service-y. Very good film, even if I think I ultimately prefer Days and the emotional highs of 28YL.
Reflecting and catching up on the thread - I do think the editing and some of Boyle's visual choices/direction are a part of what makes 28YL so special, and that is perhaps the one thing Dacosta's direction lacked, but they are also two very different (and Greta) movies imo, so I don't know that it's even necessary to compare them.
Boyle is a legend but this film was beautifully shot too and I'm glad DaCosta gave us some more lingering shots and pacing that let you sit in the scene a bit, Boyle can be so frenetic if the third film sticks the landing this could be a pretty all-timer trilogy for me, I'm so curious where it's gonna go from here. had totally forgotten the hints about there being some weird cult on Holy Island in 28YL until just now
I'm really glad they didn't take Samson turning back and talking too far. Just a few words/sentences got the point across without it feeling like it's breaking any in-universe rules.
I don’t think he’s that well known to the general audience outside of the UK. I didn’t know about him until I was reading about the ending of the last one.
I just wanna be Samson. Hanging around with my best friend all day getting high and jamming tunes. Hanging dong. Staring at the moon. Having an extremely peak physique glistening in the moonlight. If anyone so much looks at me the wrong way I hit em with a mortal kombat fatality. Livin the good life