Last summer, for about a week and a half, Doomsday played in theatres. All I really remember was a really crappy trailer that left me totally uninterested and wondering why anyone bothered with another tedious Mad Max clone.
But several times in the past few months, I've heard people talking about this movie and how great it was and, while I assumed it was something in the "great cult film" genre, I decided to check it out last week. (Perhaps if I'd realized it was from Neil Marshall, the guy responsible for The Descent, I'd have paid a little more attention, bad trailer and all.)
Rather than a simple Mad Max knockoff, Doomsday is like some glorious mash-up of Road Warrior, Robin Hood, and every post-apocalyptic zombie movie from the last 10 year, with a little dash of Python-esque humor thrown in. It's also got a callback to 28 Days Later that anyone familiar with THAT film will enjoy.
The first half-hour or so is pretty straightforward 'end of the world' SF with a strong military flavor, but when Rhona Mitra and her gang of commandos and scientists run into Sol and his 80's punk rock reavers, things go right off the rails and they stay that way through the rest of the movie. Take this roller-coaster trip through vintage Mad Max territory, the aforementioned Robin Hood/Excalibur milieu, and the most gloriously demented chase scene SINCE the Road Warrior and you've got one of the most f'ed-up (in a VERY good way) entertaining movies I've seen in months. I couldn't wait for Dani to get home so I could force her to watch it, so she could bask in the lunacy of this movie. (She loved every minute of it.)
Be warned, it's graphically violent, and you'll need a strong case of "willing suspension of disbelief... but if you can stomach the occasional graphic gore, it's all worth it if for nothing other than that lunatic chase and the final scene with Rhona and the reavers.
Comments
It's a great 'turn your brain off' flick to have fun with. But, I couldn't help but be disappointed the first time I saw it. I simply expect more from Marshall. I know he has it in him. I really love a lot of 'The Descent', and 'Dog Soldiers' has some flickers of genius. I'm looking forward to his next film, 'Centurion'.
One of my favorite moments in the movie was a throwaway that really had nothing to do with the story itself. When they're first walking through the abandoned military warehouse, one of the characters mentions the Ark of the Covenant and I realized that it's now part of pop-culture history that the Ark has been found, crated up and put into storage in a secret military warehouse. I expect, 50 years from now, it won't even be pop culture. It'll be right up there with Area 51's UFOs as common (albeit unprovable) knowledge.