a review of

I didn't care for Smile (2022) (there's a point here), but I actually really liked Smile 2 (2024), and I don't know that I could've enjoyed it as much had I not seen the first one. That also presented a problem because I don't know that I would ever recommend the first one to anyone (it's not good), but I would absolutely recommend the second one to people (it is good), but not without seeing the first one. That's where I'm at here. I didn't love the first 28 Years Later (2025), but I really liked this one! In my review of the first, I said "I do wonder if or hope that Part 2 will help me appreciate this one more," and I wouldn't say that that was the case, but the first part did set the table for me to be able to enjoy The Bone Temple as much as I did (a) and (b) I don't think I could recommend seeing this without having seen the first. In what is most likely a "me" problem, I think what I was hoping for from 28 Years is not what I got, and I was thrown off by what I got instead. Looking back, I do think that most of the things that didn't work for me in the first one still won't work for me (rewatch likely now required), but some of it was necessary to get all the great parts of Bone Temple - and there are quite a few! - to work as well as they do. Anyway, big sigh of relief that I can say that this was great, and that I'm excited now to see it all wrap up.