Rating of
3/4
The number of the beast!
Matthew Brady - wrote on 11/09/26
“Woe to you, oh earth and sea
For the Devil sends the beast with wrath
Because he knows the time is short
Let him who hath understanding reckon the number of the beast
For it is a human number
Its number is six hundred and sixty-six.”
I owe Nia DaCosta an apology because I was unfamiliar with her work. I was worried about her taking over directing duties from Danny Boyle, but she made it her own. I recognize she had style in the Candyman remake from a few years ago, but everything else around it fell flat. Based on what I’ve seen so far in her career, this is her best work. She has the sauce.
Thank God that Alex Garland and Danny Boyle returned to this franchise, because what they did with these two installments has elevated and greatly expanded the world, making it more experimental and exciting. I love that these new entries introduce new things and avoid legacy-sequel trappings, where pandering feels safe and boring and has no reason to exist other than cashing in on nostalgia. The way they expanded the rage virus in this movie was fascinating and shook up the zombie formula once again. The infected are like a community in these movies—a bunch of sick people who have lost control of themselves to the virus. They can’t control their actions, which sadly can’t be said for the non-infected. If 28 Years Later was about love, then Bone Temple is about hate and the twisted evil in people.
Ralph Fiennes and Jack O'Connell were both terrific in the movie, and their interaction was one of the highlights, a clash between good and evil with compelling dialogue. It was brief but effective.
The writing in this movie is excellent. It’s very rich and bursting with compelling ideas.
Fiennes makes the almost poetic lines even more poetic, and the character of Dr. Ian Kelson is a fascinating, wholesome man, the most important figure in this series, played wonderfully by Mr. Fiennes. Sir Jimmy Crystal, played by O’Connell, is a sadistic villain with a funny, colorful side. Modeling himself after a real-life villain, Jimmy Savile, he offers “charity,” but this charity is not a good deed to help others; oh no, it’s an excuse to torture people for amusement. The charity is for himself and his sadistic goons.
There are many great moments here, but the Iron Maiden scene with Fiennes was so ridiculous in the best way. It was so unexpected and so clever that I was laughing in disbelief. The first big movie of 2026, and that scene will be a highlight until the end of the year. What does Ralph Fiennes have to do to convince Academy members that he is worthy of an Oscar win? He is doing a heavy metal concert, and he is going for it 110%. Awesome scene.
It’s an awful shame this severely underperformed at the box office, and I hope we still get a third film despite that, since it ends on a cliffhanger, and nothing is worse than something left unresolved. Wow, people were really that underwhelmed by the last one—a damn shame, as this was solid.
