When I first saw the 2007 sequel 28 WEEKS LATER, I blew it off a bit as an inferior second chapter. I missed Danny Boyle as director and disregarded it as second rate.

Watching it again nearly 20 years later, and in the afterglow of Boyle's recent return to the series with "28 Years Later", this is a much better film that I thought.

The premise is solid.

It's six months after the events of the first film. All of Great Britain has seen the last of the rage infected zombies die off of starvation.

I guess once they raced after and ate the human survivors, there was no good flesh left to eat.

United Stated Military forces have landed to assist Britain in a massive clean up.

After an opening scene in which government official Don (Robert Carlyle of "Trainspotting" and "The World Is Not Enough") faces impossible choices trying to survive in a countryside riddled with the infected, we flash forward to him running one of the new resident towers in an isolated corner of London.

His children Tammy (Imogen Poots) and Andy (the brilliantly named Mackintosh Muggleton) are arriving in London to reunite with their Father and deal with the death of their mother Alice (Catherine McCormack from "Braveheart").

The Military force surrounding the first citizens to return to London is not only massive and incredibly well armed, it's also stacked with actors who would go on to be huge stars in the two decades since.

Idris Elba is Stone, the immovable commander of the encampment dealing with an impossible situation that feels like it can fall apart at any moment.

Rose Byrne (Insidious, Bridesmaids) is the chief medical officer looking for any potential signs of the virus returning. She's not happy that children as young as 12 year old Andy are coming back.

Jeremy Renner (The Avengers) is Doyle, an American sniper guarding the skyscraper rooftops of our resettled London. His best friend is helicopTer pilot Flynn, played by Harold Perrineau from "Lost".

As with the original film, you get to know these survivors just enough to really care about them when ALL hell breaks loose.

I'm not going to spoil any surprises by saying what happens.

There are several key sequences that compare not only with Boyle's original, but also reminded me of the balls-to-the-wall intensity of George Romero's "Dawn of the Dead". Fans of that classic will recognize a great helicopter zombie sequence when they see one.

The decisions made by some of the characters and the military are logical but emotionally devastating to watch.

The scale of destruction and explosive military action inside London are still thrilling to watch and well executed.

Renner is great as a man torn between duty and his protective nature when Tammy and Andy fall under his wing. The man was a hero well before he picked up the Marvel arrows.

The whole damn thing pretty much falls apart with about 15 minutes to go. It feels like Director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo is grasping for an ending that's artistic and horrifying and he achieves neither, but damned if everything that comes before that isn't a whole lot better than I remembered from my initial viewing.

I'll give it a bloody B-.