Just got back from 28 Days Later, and man do I feel ripped off.

Lots of critics and comments from others raved about this movie. What the hell were they thinking?

I actually thought it started out pretty well (despite my environs...a babbling baby and two cell phones in the theatre). Some animal rights activists break into a research lab and let loose a killer chimp infected with a rage virus.

We get the subtitle "28 days later..." and a guy wakes up in a London hospital. There's nobody around. He stumbles into a church and there are some creepy people, including a priest, with red eyes and a lot of pent-up anger. He's chased through the streets, the camera shakes a whole lot, then a gas station blows up. Somewhere in there he's rescued by two survivors, Mark and Selena.

Now, when they rescue him, they're wearing goggles, masks, gloves, and so on. Why? Because if you're bit by a rage zombie, or even a drop of their blood gets in your eyes or mouth (and look out, cause they projectile vomit blood), you become a rage zombie yourself in about 15 seconds. Mark then fills in Jim. And he tells him "The Rules".

Never go anywhere alone. Unless you have to.
Never travel at night. Unless you have to.

And so far I'm thinking, "Hey, these are pretty smart movie characters. They're savvy, right? They're not going to descend into horror movie cliche."

Wrong.

Throughout the rest of the film, they never wear protective covering (presumably this is so we can see the actor's faces, even though they're relative nobodies). They purposefully go into dark places, when there are other choices available. The main character stupidly walks into an abandoned gas station alone, and predictably gets attacked. And on and on.

This was a stupid film, with no internal logic to either the zombies (Why don't they attack each other? How the hell do they live for three days, much less 28 or 56, when they're constantly filled with incoherent rage? How do they sleep, drink water, eat, etc.? They're filled with rage, but they're able to bottle it up enough to stay quiet to ambush passers-by.) or to the main characters, who act stupidly and inconsistently throughout the film.

This movie was dumb, dumb, dumb, and I frankly don't understand why more critics weren't more critical of the obvious plot holes, illogic, and trite horror movie cliches riddled throughout.