When a deadly virus breaks out in Scotland, killing thousands within the first few weeks, the British government does the only thing it can think of--which is the seal off the entire northern section of the country by building a massive wall, using the original Roman wall built by the Emperor Hadrian as a guide. At first manned by armed troops, they are eventually replaced by automated gun systems, which prove to be even more lethal. This idea seems to work for the next thirty years--until the virus turns up again in London. Desperate to prevent the same thing that happened in Scotland from happening in the rest of the British Isles, the Prime Minister (played by DS9’s Alexander Siddig) has a special squad of commandos assembled.
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It turns out that routine surveillance by the British government of Scotland has
turned up something remarkable: survivors. Dr. Kane (the always reliable Malcolm
McDowell), a noted physician, had been caught behind the wall when Scotland was
sealed off. He was in the process of trying to find a cure, and it now appears
that he succeeded. Major Eden Sinclair (the superb Rhona Mitra) is charged with
leading a team into the former hot zone to find Dr. Kane and, hopefully, find
the cure as well. Although she goes in with a fully armed team in a pair of
armored personnel carriers, Major Sinclair and her people are not prepared for
what they find.
And I wasn’t prepared for Doomsday, the third film by director Neil Marshall,
who gave us the magnificent horror opus The Descent. Instead of a horror film
this time out, Marshall gives us an SF epic that invokes John Carpenter’s Escape
From New York…as well as James Cameron’s Aliens, and George Miller’s The Road Warrior, and--heck--even fans of Braveheart have something to look forward to here. To say that Doomsday is derivative of these films is putting it mildly. When Sinclair and her team enter an abandoned hospital, I kept expecting to hear Sgt Apone from Aliens order them to "watch those corners!"
But despite its imitative storyline, which is often jarring in how it changes
tone as well as locales (the Mad Max chase plays like a flat-out comedy),
Doomsday is still a fun ride. Mitra handles the hot action babe quotient very
well, and the film’s great cast of actors help pull off the more unbelievable
aspects of the story. While Doomsday lacks the razor’s edge brilliance of The
Descent, it’s still very enjoyable on its own merits. Watching this, I got the
feeling that Doomsday should have been the second feature on the Grindhouse
project, along with Planet Terror--because, if nothing else,
Marshall sure knows how to keep an audience entertained with an enjoyable romp
that's worthy of the drive-ins.
--SF