If you’re hungry, try a piece of your friend.
Director: Neil Marshall
Notable Cast: Rhona Mitra, Bob Hoskins, Alexander Siddig, Adrian Lester, Sean Pertwee, Malcolm McDowell
Doomsday is a Frankenstein monster of recycled apocalyptic visions and over-the-top new imagery that almost works. Where Neil Marshall loses sight of his objective is in the mirthless presentation of the whole affair. Like Marshall’s previous effort (The Descent) Doomsday is a wacked out genre-bending submersion in style as well as content. Doomsday‘s shortcomings are certainly not for a lack of interesting ideas.
The film begins with the overused, but still harrowing, scene in which everyone is fleeing a deadly virus set to wipe out the entire human race. Martial law is implemented in an effort to contain the infected at the expense of the majority of the population. The scenario unfolds mostly to emphasis the importance of young Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra) escaping with her life.
In the years that follow, Sinclair becomes a government assassin in a now globally shunned Great Britain. Kudos to Marshall for not utilizing the frivolous plot point in which the entire world has been subjected to the virus, it is typically unnecessary and in this case containing the virus’ affect within the confines of the island offers a new argument on how the apocalypse might take place.
Forced to be self-sufficient, the leaders of Great Britain are unknowingly creating a perfect environment for a second outbreak of the Reaper virus. Enter Sinclair and her team of mercenaries chosen to lead a mission to retrieve a cure the government suspects lies somewhere within the walls of the quarantined zone.
Once inside, Sinclair and company must find Dr. Kane (Malcolm McDowell), the doctor who had been working on the vaccination before being unceremoniously left behind during the zone’s evacuation 30 years prior. But before they reach him, the team is attacked and captured by a group of survivors led by Lord Humungous…er…Sol, the son of Kane.
After much superfluous gore and many gruesome killings (more to come later) Sinclair and what remains of her team make it into the countryside where Kane has set up a medieval community of followers. It should be noted that “medieval” is not the least bit hyperbolic. The entire set piece comes with a castle, knights, and a battle for the king’s (Kane) viewing pleasure.
Such rococo storytelling is surprising to see in a major release, but more surprising still is that this off-kilter action flick is directed with seemingly no sense of irony whatsoever. The final chase scene, mostly an excuse to showcase more bloody deaths, has the potential to send Doomsday completely over the edge into that corner of excessive celebratory insanity that few movies have the courage to dwell.
Instead, Marshall’s intensely humorless tone takes most of the fun out of the proceedings. The aforementioned chase, as well as Sinclair’s battle with a mace-wielding knight, is admittedly fun and unique, but it is hard not to imagine what could have been. There is a fine line between gleeful sadism and just plain mean-spiritedness; it would be nice to know exactly which side of that line Doomsday is standing on.
FINAL RATING (ON A SCALE OF 1-5 BUCKETS):
