Movie Review: Doomsday (2008)

Let me preface this by saying that Doomsday is, by no stretch of the imagination a good movie, but it is a shit load of fun and a hell of a ride. It’s messy, its inconsistent, and full of major plot holes but it does one thing many movies fail to do, and that is to entertain. It felt like a spoof the whole time, and in many ways it was, except it was over the top violent and brutal with some great action sequences and lots of blood. It was exactly what the doctor ordered, a brutal horror flick in between a bunch of crap PG-13 horror movies.

The story isn’t really much of one and goes in the way of a lot of other horror movies which centers around a deadly virus outbreak (Resident Evil series and 28 Weeks Later). Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra) is a Major that is given the task of going over the quarantine zone years after the virus has been “contained” and after another outbreak starts again. They suspect that there are survivors trapped in the zone and that is why they send a team over to search for them and hopefully the cure. It was interesting to see the first act of this movie because it was the most consistent and actually explained things as they went along. After a while it devolved into clever action and a weak anti-politic statement movie that sprawled from city like environments to a medieval castle to a very long, intense and very confusing car chase.

The saving grace of Doomsday has to be the incredible action sequences that happen during almost every scene in this film. It’s to the point where people hardly ever talk without either shooting at each other or being chased. This movie really did push the R rating, as it depicts more decapitations than I have ever seen anywhere else. As I said before, it almost comes across as a spoof movie in the highest form – giving nods to all sorts horror classics – and this is key, because it never takes itself too seriously. The plot never becomes an issue and only seems to be there to lead us into another fight scene.

Director Neil Marshall has quickly become quite a popular name in horror genre after two great films (Dog Soldiers and The Descent), and while this isn’t quite a hat trick for him it’s a step in the right direction that in my opinion should have been a sort of grind-house deal. Some shots are much better than others, with a lot of the final car chase happening at very awkward angles while others are shot perfectly with blood splashing on the screen or a head flying into it.

The acting here is as good as it could be with Rhona Mitra playing her character fairly well. Malcolm McDowell being the other main character, Kane, is also a good addition. Doomsday also reunites The Descent veterans MyAnna Buring, Craig Conway, and Bob Hoskins. They do a great job of propelling the characters through the story and seem to have a lot of fun playing their parts.

All in all what we get here is a quick little action fix until later in the year when all the big action blockbusters come out. Doomsday serves as a fun movie to see now and forget for the most part afterwards. Check this one out you could really enjoy it if this is your type of movie.