Rating: 1 Pulse
Rhona Mitra, Bob Hoskins, Adrian Lester, Malcolm McDowell
Directed by Neil Marshall
Rated R
A futuristic action thriller, this regurgitated version of Mad Max and a combination of other films of it’s type, is about a team of people who work to prevent disaster from affecting the future of the human race. A lethal virus has spread throughout the British Isles. To contain it, they must brutally quarantine the country, and are initially successful. Thirty years later, however, the virus suddenly resurfaces.
The score, by Tyler Bates, who also did the score for last year’s 300, is good, but this movie offers much more in the way of style than substance, just like any other typical blockbuster.
English director Neil Marshall’s work leaves much to be desired in the ever-important pacing and storytelling elements. Although the acting is passable, the characters are as bland as the story and do nothing interesting. Rhona Mitchell is merely a poor replica of Milla Jovovich in Resident Evil, minus the humanity. McDowell and Hoskins are vastly underused, and they had potential to help give this film some much-needed sustenance.
The special effects are special, indeed, and if you have never seen any of the other films this one copies, you may like it. If art design and interesting imagery are all you care about, you may love it. But if you prefer originality over an hour-and-a-half-long series of homages to prior films, you will be wasting precious time and money on Doomsday. I would only recommend the DVD to “Mad Max” fanatics. Everyone else would get angry if I told them they would like it.
