Movie Review - 'Doomsday'

Doomsday

Starring Rhona Mitra and Bob Hoskins
Directed by Neil Marshall
Rated R

Neil Marshall made a lot of people take notice of his work as a writer-director with the blood soaked The Descent in 2006. Rarely do you see such strong representation of women in the horror genre, and despite the oceans of blood and some silliness substituting for real drama, it was an effective thriller.

Suffice it to say, there has been a lot of anticipation for his follow-up, the apocalyptic Doomsday. Once again, a female character is at the center of the storm and Marshall now has more resources to work with and no need to introduce himself to genre fans.

So what does he do? He makes a second-rate action movie with unquestionably bad acting, worse editing (particularly in the action sequences) and lifts major plot points and character types from every apocalypse movie that has come before.

In short, he fails.

A virus has thinned the population of the UK and the British government has essentially quarantined Scotland to keep the rest of the world safe from the deadly bacterium and for 30 years or so, it's worked out pretty well. But now there's a leak inside London so the Department of Domestic Security sends its toughest officer (Rhona Mitra) over the wall and into the quarantined region seeking answers and hopefully a cure.

Seems simple enough to follow, and it is. But Marshall is deeply fascinated with the post-apocalyptic societies that emerge in rather short order, spawning styles and codes of conduct as divergent as Mad Max and King Arthur, and none of it fits. If anything, the boring scenic routes Doomsday takes distract us from the real story, which again, because it's so rudimentary, may be the point.

There are a couple good features, however. Rhona Mitra was born to be an action star. She's striking, has a great physicality and is believable swinging an axe, firing a gun and running for her life.

Also, there's a touch more humor here than you'd expect and curiously, especially because of the dynamic problems the film has with its own story structure, the humor is always well paced and well placed.

But after 100 minutes of this assault, it's hard to laugh about anything.