SPOILERS/STORY SUMMARY REVIEW
What I will say about this movie is it's not all bad. This first half was really good, with an opening that was reminiscent of 28 Weeks Later. Afterwards though, it cuts to completely different characters for basically the rest of the film. Which would be fine and all, just showing a snippet of how the infection was 28 years before the start of the movie, but it does a weird call back in the ending scene that feels extremely out of place compared to the rest of the film. Aside from that, the first half is really good and the tension of survival of a father and son feels heavy and suspenseful, especially with the addition of a new type of infected: the alpha. This new infected is basically a 'roided up super infected that is both smarter and stronger than normal ones. It's only after making it back to the safe village does the movie noticeably change mood to a more coming of age feeling movie, oddly reminding me a bit of Stand By Me.
It's at this point, my enjoyment of this movie kinda began to fall. This latter half just ends up with the boy and his mom going out to find a doctor. The whole trip, it kinda feels like things just happen. And sure, the second half is about accepting death, but it feels so paved over when the boy has a more violent reaction to his dad cheating than the guy who actually kills. It feels so jarring when that scene happens cause it doesn't really fit how the character acted beforehand.
After all is said and done, boy stays outside of the safe village and wanders where it ends in a bizarre scene of him running into a pack of survivors which one turns out to be the kid from the opening scene. It's so weird cause it a group of 5 who at first I mistook as a gang of grannies doing par-core and brutalizing some runner infected all while some trash metal was playing in the background. I did get a laugh at the fact that I wasn't the only one in the theater wondering what the hell was going on when that scene started.
TLDR: Movie is good and really suspenseful up until they return to base in witch it turns more into a bad attempt of a coming of age story that finishes off with a power rangers type end scene. This whole movie reminds me of what happened with Longlegs. Advertising made the movie seem like a much different movie vs the actual viewing experience. Don't know how the next to films are gonna be like (if they even release), but seeing how much this first film feels like a filler movie doesn't give me much hope that they'll be good....