Doomsday

• Genre: PostApoc
• Release Year: 2008
• Director: Neil Marshall
• Writer: Neil Marshall
• Running Time: 105min
• Rating: R (violence, splatter-gore, br
• Reviewed by: harbinger on Thu 4 Sep 08

Official Blurb:
In the action-packed new thriller DOOMSDAY, from writer/director Neil Marshall (The Descent, Dog Soldiers), authorities brutally quarantine a country as it succumbs to fear and chaos when a virus strikes. The literal walling-off works for three decades--until the dreaded Reaper virus violently resurfaces in a major city. An elite group of specialists, captained by Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra), is urgently dispatched into the still-quarantined country to retrieve a cure by any means necessary. Shut off from the rest of the world, the unit must battle through a landscape that has become a waking nightmare

Review:
Short hairs: Mad Max and Underworld (sans Vampires and Werewolves) had a bastard child who grew up in Glasgow.

Somewhere in Scotland a deadly virus, titled 'The Reaper Virus' breaks out. It's fast spreading, contagious, and quick-acting. Luckily it's not airborne. What do you do? Easy, mysteriously come up with enough men and material to wall off Scotland from the rest of the world in an effort to contain it. As you can imagine, mass hysteria and anarchy quickly rein supreme, and the government in London consider Scotland dead, never to be returned to.

The film opens up with Malcolm McDowell, whose character you are not introduced to until much later, doing a voice over of to bring you up to speed. Apparently in April 08 this all starts. We're treated to some early tastes of the blood-splatter heavy style that will continue throughout the film in some scenes of Scots desperately trying to escape and save themselves. Then enter the main character.. at this point a young girl with her mother trying to escape. A military helicopter takes pity on the young mother and air lifts the daughter to safely. Thus ends the flashback.

Jump ahead 30 or so years. The young girl is now a top security agent for DDS.. they don't really say what this is, but it seems they are sort of like FBI / ATF / SWAT. Our intrepid heroine is at this point an angst ridden woman with no family; a sort of stereotypical 'nothing to lose' misfit that you expect to see in alot of action films. That and Rhona Mitra looks very similar to Kate Beckinsale in the 'Underworld' franchise.. but less skin-tight. After having her status as a bad-ass verified for the audience, she is tasked by the current, and stereotypically corrupt, government of the UK to lead a team going into Scotland to find Kane, the top doctor that was researching the Reaper virus so they can make a cure.

So over the wall they go, they go.. in to Glasgow!
First place they look for Kane is the former hospital where he worked, and they don't find any of his work while there. However, they do get jumped by the Mohawkers (well not -THE- Mohawkers.. more like their UK cousins.. but they definitely have colored mohawks!).
Of course this results in several stupid things done by the supposedly-elite team, and we end up with only a few survivors, some of which are captured by the gangs of Glasglow.

What follows is part 'feels like Underworld', part Mad Max - The Road Warrior, part blood-splatter-fest, and part Malcolm MacDowell playing SCA.

There is a plot, and it's an OK plot.. but this is primarily an action film that borrows from several existing well known film ideas. It doesn't make this a bad movie at all, just don't expect anything groundbreaking or novel.

What I liked:
- Well produced and effected action film that didn't go REALLY REALLY REALLY cliche and cheesy (it was only 1x Really, not 3x)
- Well effected blood-splatter film. you can tell where they are like 'hey lets get this guy run over!', but it doesn't feel as as many B-grade horror flicks.

What I didn't like:
- Not very groundbreaking of a film at all.. if you don't expect it a super-great plot and characters, you'll be fine.
- They go through the effort to introduce some things that just get weak play later in the movie. "Rhona, we need you to spend a few minutes talking about this cool gizmo".. I think that time could have been better spent somewhere else. The 10 seconds that relies on Gizmo-X for the seeming 5-minute buildup is a total waste. Maybe the director's cut will be better.

Final Scoring:

Personal Recommendation: Was good in the theatre, will be good on DVD I'm sure too; just expect a mindless action film

Availablity:
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