Doomsday
Twenty-five years after a plague resulted in Scotland being quarantined, a group of scientists and soldiers must fight marauders in the wastelands to find a cure and save the remainder of Great Britain.
I figured I’d hold off on this for a bit, in respect to Hey Internet, Stop Being Such Cynical Effing Douchebags Blog-a-Thon day.
Doomsday was fucking dire. In fact, it was the worst movie I’ve seen since Transformers, with which it shares so much. I never walk out of movies, but if I hadn’t gone with J., I would have left halfway through without looking back.
Considering the critical tongue bath it’s getting from genre fans, I can only imagine that it’s a matter of time before someone accuses me of hating Doomsday because it was derivative of previous post-apocalyptic movies. I hate writing an anticipatory defense, but that wasn’t the case. As a matter of fact, I’m an admirer of the post-apocalyptic sub-genre, derivative movies, and especially derivative post-apocalyptic movies. I’d be willing to bet that I own more knock-offs than I do the movies that were copied.
My only hope walking into Doomsday was that Neil Marshall would not only play off the surface elements of these films, but also attempt to match their craftsmanship. Unfortunately, this was one of the most inept, frustrating action movies I have ever seen, with absolutely no sense of pacing, composition or suspense. What makes it especially baffling is that Marshall has shown that he has a good eye for these elements in his previous movies. Maybe Doomsday was so big that it got away from him.
Any movie where I spend most of the running time wishing I was at home watching 1990: The Bronx Warriors or Phoenix The Warrior is a complete waste of time.
March 20th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
Wow! I don’t know what to say other than that I disagree with you so totally on both your specifics and your general take that there’s probably not even enough common ground for me to have a useful debate on the topic. Ah well! To each his own. Maybe instead, I’ll just say that I wish you put up non-Roundtable posts around here like this one more often, even if I disagree with them completely.
March 21st, 2008 at 12:01 am
Yeah, I feel very guilty that I haven’t been posting as much. I’ll be making more of an effort after my move.
March 21st, 2008 at 12:16 pm
DOOMSDAY was, as you said, absolutely dire - and I love derivative Eye-Tye Post Apocalypse movies.
For me, the primary issue with this film was the tone. Bottom line: there was no sense of FUN. If you want to make a bleak, ugly movie, then do it…but don’t then try to get away with cute one liners and ass shots. The cannibalism sequence was beyond the pale for a film that was obviously trying to echo ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK.
Anyway - there are many reasons to dislike this film (the incomprehensible MichaelBayesque action photography, the constant plot implausibilities, the faux Ran Faire trappings). I just happen to find the overall tone of the thing the most glaring.
March 21st, 2008 at 3:33 pm
I thought it was disappointing, too–the chase scene, deriving ultimately from ROAD WARRIOR I reckon, was flaccid. The bad guys from the South weren’t nearly awful enough despite the Hatcher=Thatcher resonance.
But I did enjoy the fat, hairy, kilted guys stomping around onstage during the bbq.
March 21st, 2008 at 3:44 pm
You can never get enough fat, hairy, kilted guys. Doomsday needed more cock and balls.
March 23rd, 2008 at 3:30 pm
The one thing keeping me away from the theatrical release is that the action scenes are supposedly hyper-edited, which is just dumb, seeing as how they were all done with practical FX.
I mean, Jesus, man, if you’re gonna rip off the Road Warrior, rip off the Road Warrior. Just let the choreography speak for itself.
March 25th, 2008 at 1:33 am
The editing was what killed me. You could tell their action choreography was shit and they had to use rapid-fire editing to cover up.
March 26th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Aw man - am gutted to hear that Doomsday sucks ass…
I loved Dog Soldiers and Descent plus am big fan of the genre - hell remember HARDWARE?
Anyway thanks for the heads up (hits the UK in May)…
March 27th, 2008 at 9:16 am
Hey, Matt. Keep in mind that there are a fair amount of lovely, intelligent people who really enjoyed Doomsday. It’s certainly not for everyone, but that doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy it.
And it’s coming out in the UK after North America? That’s a shame.
March 29th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
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May 11th, 2008 at 8:31 am
Dkny Wallets…
I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you….
May 17th, 2008 at 6:26 am
Highly-derivative but good none-the-less .
“Doomsday” borrowed heavily from Mad Max, etc but was an affectionate homage rather than a total rip-off !
June 28th, 2008 at 5:56 am
Doomsday was cobbled together with direct lifts from Mad Max, Escape From New York and a lot of otehr 1980s genre favourite.
Still thoroughly enjoyable.
You can play spot the scene-steal !
June 28th, 2008 at 5:56 am
Doomsday was cobbled together with direct lifts from Mad Max, Escape From New York and a lot of other 1980s genre favourites.
Still thoroughly enjoyable.
You can play spot the scene-steal !
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:11 pm
This movie was a feminist version of “The Road Warrior” only instead of being realistic it was absolutely absurd hollywood fantasy. I love how at the end when she drives up to the helicopter there isn[’t a dent or scratch on the car. It was like the director just said screw it, this movie sucks anyway, why try to add any realism at this point. The whole chase sequence sucked because you could tell they were driving at like forty miles an hour tops. What an epic fail. Everyone involved should find a new line of work.
July 23rd, 2008 at 8:59 am
I agree. This movie was very dissapointing. Sucked big time.
July 31st, 2008 at 5:57 am
What is this
July 31st, 2008 at 6:00 am
Doomsday. The cinema was good according to me