Doomsday (2008) Movie Information:

Doomsday (2008) Directed by: Neil Marshall Doomsday (2008) Written by: Neil Marshall Doomsday (2008) Cast: Rhona Mitra, Bob Hoskins, Alexander Siddig, Adrian Lester, Sean Pertwee, Darren Morfitt, Emma Cleasby, Chris Robson, Myanna Buring, Nora-Jane Noone, Leslie Simpson, Craig Conway, Malcolm McDowell

Doomsday (2008) U.S. Distributor: Rogue Pictures Doomsday (2008) U.K. Distributor: UIP

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Doomsday (2008) Synopsis:

Will be set three decades after a lethal virus tore through a major country, leading to the country's walling off. When the virus, known as the Reaper, resurfaces in another country, an elite group is dispatched to the infected country to find a cure. There, they end up shut off from the rest of the world and must battle through a landscape that has become a waking nightmare.

Doomsday (2008) Movie Review:

After delivering the effectively tense thriller The Descent, writer/director Neil Marshall hits a brick wall with his futuristic action film Doomsday. With his gift of capturing a tense atmosphere in The Descent as well as Dog Soldiers, Marshall has a knack of keeping his audience on the edge of their seat. However, with Doomsday being more of an action film, Marshall borrows elements from almost every futuristic post-apocalyptic film that has been done better, including the likes of The Road Warrior, 28 Days Later, and Escape from New York.

The film opens in present day Scotland, where the horrible “Reaper” virus has contaminated its citizens. This forces the government to quarantine the entire country behind a gigantic wall.

Flash forward to 2035, where the virus has turned those behind the wall in cannibalistic zombie punk rockers. A new leashing of the virus has begun in London and before the city is torn to shreds, the Prime Minister (Alexander Siddiq) sets up a search and return mission for Dr. Kane (Malcolm McDowell) over the wall in Scotland. Dr. Kane was one of few doctors that stayed in Scotland in hope of creating a curable vaccine for the virus, but has been out off the radar for some time.

The local police captain (Bob Hoskins) decides to send in the tough and collective cop Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra) to lead a military team into the quarantined zone in search of Dr. Kane. Sinclair is a smart gunslinger, who also has a unique artificial eye. Shortly after arriving into the zone, the group is attacked by the crazed survivors, who yearn for human flesh and are led by the ruthless Sol (Craig Conway).

With time running out, Eden is faced with continuous obstacles outside of the crazed cannibals in search of Dr. Kane or some evidence to stall or stop the outbreak.

It is very disappointing to see Neil Marshall as the writer/director of this lame and unexciting action film. From start to finish, Doomsday is one rehash after another from other sci-fi or futuristic films, with no sense of originality at all. As the film continues to move along, it gets more and more ridiculous. After a huge escape sequence from the cannibals, Eden and her crew meet more characters at a castle full with guys in armor, bows and arrows and horses. Then follows a gladiator battle, next the bad guys come back for a finale just like The Road Warrior with Eden stumbling along a brand new Aston Martin. The film just continuously becomes laughable from one scene to another, with clunky dialogue, no merit and as previously mentioned no originality. Besides the frustration with Marshall’s writing and directing of this dud, is that the ending leaves open for a possible sequel.

Rhona Mitra, plays the Resident Evil Alice character of this film and is a good choice as a heroine, but her one-liners become annoying and we never feel anything for her, though her back story with her mother is suppose to bring emotion to the role. Bob Hoskins shows up as her boss, and the talented Alexander Siddiq plays the Prime Minister enthralled with a major crisis. Malcolm McDowell playfully chews the scenery as the mysterious Dr. Kane, and Craig Conway screams a lot as the crazed leader of the cannibals.

Doomsday is a forgettable film that should hit DVD real soon. It perhaps would have worked better going straight to video stores, but being conceived from a filmmaker like Neil Marshall, one expected a lot more.

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Doomsday (2008) review written by: Bailey Henderson