Nothing quite manages to capture the imagination like a solid post-apocalyptic film… or at least, that’s usually the case. Neil Marshall’s Doomsday is a film that is steeped in the history of the post-apocalyptic film, taking bits and pieces from The Road Warrior, Escape from New York, and 28 Weeks Later. The film hovers between being an homage to the classics of the sub-genre and being a complete ripoff with nothing original to say.
In the film, a deadly virus spreads throughout Scotland, to the point where Scotland is completely quarantined and eventually walled off. 30 years later, signs of the virus show up in the ghettos of London’s streets and a team of soldiers and a couple of doctors are sent into the walled off area to find a cure, as it turns out there are survivors behind the walls. Eden Sinclaire, a one-eyed badass fond of staring at people, leads this team in their Aliens-like armored personnel vehicles. She leads them through a wasteland city full of fetish loving freaks and even to a medieval castle complete with knights and all that bullshit.
Doomsday is a sad case of style over substance, as everything in the film looks fantastic without ever managing to say anything. The outfits are fascinating, sexy, and original as are the designs of the ruined cities and the characters themselves, but nothing ever happens to elevate the story from being anything other than a trite mishmash of post-apocalyptic plot elements. While there is certainly the potential for depth, the film feels about as bland as any summer blockbuster you can name off the top of your head.
Neil Marshall’s directing leaves a bit to be desired in the pacing and storytelling department. The character development in the film is abysmal, which is most noticeable with the stories main character, Eden Sinclaire. Sinclaire is less of a badass and more of an emotionless wench capable of killing people. She does nothing remotely interesting and the film relies on its imagery and art design to wow the audiences; however, most viewers won’t give a fuck because they don’t give a shit about the story or the characters.
The acting in the film is alright, but not a single one of the characters is remotely interesting, except for Sol… who really isn’t all that special. There’s not much acting to do in the film, as the most depth that is asked of the characters is to oscillate between being irate and looking solemn. Rhona Mitra comes off like a cheap version of Milla Jovovich’s Alice from the Resident Evil series, minus the human elements. Malcolm McDowell and Bob Hoskins are poorly underused and the whole film reeks of wasted potential.
The special effects in the film are top notch and sometimes over the top. There is a wonderful amount of splatter action in the film, but it’s not enough to make the film’s deficiencies, bland plot and the cardboard characters, not matter. Had Marshall said “Yeah, I have shitty characters and a weak story,” and ramped up the gore factor a little bit I might have been willing to overlook those flaws. He doesn’t though, and the end result is of waiting through ten minutes of talking in between scenes of delicious violence.
Doomsday could have been so much better, if Marshall had gone for a less derivative route and tried to make his own film rather than filling it with homages to other flicks. One of the things that Marshall has done so well up to this point in his career is that he stays away from cheap tactics that hacks like Quentin Tarantino and to a lesser degree Eli Roth have used to attain a modicum of notoriety and fame… namely ripping other motherfuckers off and calling it their own film, while nerds and movie geeks everywhere pop boners at all the wonderful film references in a subpar movie. Originality always wins over an homage.

Final Synopsis: This film is moderately enjoyable and had you never seen any of the films it ripped off, you might even say it was good. For me, there wasn’t enough original material in the film and it lacks a quality story, quality characters, and anything worth saying. It’s worth a watch, but you’ll only really love it if you get wood for art design and interesting imagery.

Points Lost: -1 for weak characters, -1 for a lack of solid storytelling, -1 for borrowing too much from other post-apocalyptic films and not doing enough original stuff, -1 for poor pacing

Lesson Learned: When the shit hits the fan… everybody turns punk rock.

Burning Question: Where are they getting all that gasoline from?

6/10