David O'ConnellDoomsday is near!
June 13th 2008 03:15
British director Neil Marshall’s first two memorable films – the guerilla warfare werewolf extravaganza Dog Soldiers and the claustrophobic, subterranean horror/suspense classic The Descent – raised my expectations very high for his latest film Doomsday. Sadly though, it’s a major disappointment, his plot lacking a single original idea. It begins like another variation on 28 Days Later and the Resident Evil films before transforming into a lame amalgamation of Escape from New York and any of the Mad Max films.
The basic plot is simple: a rapidly spreading virus has broken out in Scotland with chaos, madness and mass killing ensuing. The authorities, in haste, construct a wall along the Scottish/English border to contain it. Soon the entire land mass of Scotland becomes a sealed-off zone, a gigantic quarantined prison of sorts, with those inside left to fend for themselves against the outbreak.
We fast forward to the year 2035 and immune survivors inside have been detected, their existence increasing the possibility of an unlikely cure. Someone needs to venture inside the containment zone however to find a former doctor, Marcus Kane (Malcolm McDowall) who may be the key to retrieving blood which could lead to a vaccine.
Rhona Mitra plays Major Eden Sinclair, the gung-ho, tougher-than-nails special forces officer - who is chosen by her boss Bill Nelson (Bob Hoskins) on behalf of the government - with pretensions of claiming Linda Hamilton or Sigourney Weaver’s crown……………or maybe just Snake Plissken's!!!
She has 46 hours to perform her task or be left for dead on the other side. She enters with a generic crew - of certain lunatic fodder - inside huge specially modified tanks (which predictably last about 20 minutes!). When it all goes pear-shaped she’s left with only a couple of good men, but not before being bound and tortured by the sadistic Sol (Craig Conway), leader of the crazies who has assumed control and just so happens to be the outcast son of Dr. Kane.
And it’s here that further disappointments really begin to mount. There’s no hint of a futuristic world or even the trashed remnants of it – apparently society under the threat of viral infection has devolved into a squalid pig sty ruled by a motley assembly of medieval punks who mostly just hoot and holler like a castrated squad of feather-teased baboons with nasty S&M proclivities.
There’s a lot of primal posturing and bellowing in an attempt to distract us from the lame dialogue and other deficiencies in Marshall’s screenplay. He tries to convey an apocalyptic tone but the whole thing feels hollow and so pieced together with the reused ideas of much superior films that it can only fail in the end.
Technically it’s more than proficient, as you’d expect, with copious amounts of blood shed in creative and gory ways. A prolonged car battle towards the end, with bodies hanging out of cars with fists and weapons flying, is a brilliantly executed highlight with wonderful camerawork and slick editing.
Marshall has stated that he was looking for an 80’s feel to the score as well, and composer Tyler Bates does a great job in meshing beefed-up orchestral elements with retro synthesizers which bring a John Carpenter-like tone to proceedings, though some of his best moments and highlights of the CD, are buried beneath overwhelming sound effects in the film.
In the end Doomsday can’t escape the debt it owes the past in terms of its origins, whether in homage or not.
The best recommendation I can give would be to just pull out one of Marshall’s other two films and watch them again instead.
The basic plot is simple: a rapidly spreading virus has broken out in Scotland with chaos, madness and mass killing ensuing. The authorities, in haste, construct a wall along the Scottish/English border to contain it. Soon the entire land mass of Scotland becomes a sealed-off zone, a gigantic quarantined prison of sorts, with those inside left to fend for themselves against the outbreak.
We fast forward to the year 2035 and immune survivors inside have been detected, their existence increasing the possibility of an unlikely cure. Someone needs to venture inside the containment zone however to find a former doctor, Marcus Kane (Malcolm McDowall) who may be the key to retrieving blood which could lead to a vaccine.
Rhona Mitra plays Major Eden Sinclair, the gung-ho, tougher-than-nails special forces officer - who is chosen by her boss Bill Nelson (Bob Hoskins) on behalf of the government - with pretensions of claiming Linda Hamilton or Sigourney Weaver’s crown……………or maybe just Snake Plissken's!!!
She has 46 hours to perform her task or be left for dead on the other side. She enters with a generic crew - of certain lunatic fodder - inside huge specially modified tanks (which predictably last about 20 minutes!). When it all goes pear-shaped she’s left with only a couple of good men, but not before being bound and tortured by the sadistic Sol (Craig Conway), leader of the crazies who has assumed control and just so happens to be the outcast son of Dr. Kane.
And it’s here that further disappointments really begin to mount. There’s no hint of a futuristic world or even the trashed remnants of it – apparently society under the threat of viral infection has devolved into a squalid pig sty ruled by a motley assembly of medieval punks who mostly just hoot and holler like a castrated squad of feather-teased baboons with nasty S&M proclivities.
Rhona Mitra: it's a long way from The Practice to Doomsday!
There’s a lot of primal posturing and bellowing in an attempt to distract us from the lame dialogue and other deficiencies in Marshall’s screenplay. He tries to convey an apocalyptic tone but the whole thing feels hollow and so pieced together with the reused ideas of much superior films that it can only fail in the end.
Technically it’s more than proficient, as you’d expect, with copious amounts of blood shed in creative and gory ways. A prolonged car battle towards the end, with bodies hanging out of cars with fists and weapons flying, is a brilliantly executed highlight with wonderful camerawork and slick editing.
Marshall has stated that he was looking for an 80’s feel to the score as well, and composer Tyler Bates does a great job in meshing beefed-up orchestral elements with retro synthesizers which bring a John Carpenter-like tone to proceedings, though some of his best moments and highlights of the CD, are buried beneath overwhelming sound effects in the film.
In the end Doomsday can’t escape the debt it owes the past in terms of its origins, whether in homage or not.
The best recommendation I can give would be to just pull out one of Marshall’s other two films and watch them again instead.
If women are going to look like this in the future, put me to sleep now.
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Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
I noticed it still has no designated Australian release date - after seeing it, I'd say it'll be direct-to-dvd most likely. It's a real let-down after The Descent, which was such a bloody classic little film.
Comment by Anonymous
I also liked your review on 'The Orphange'. A brilliant movie with very creepy kids. I'm very surprised you didn' t receive more votes for it. It's a knockout of a movie and again a great review.
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile