Doomsday

Doomsday is a kind of post-apocalyptic movie from the director of Dog Soldiers, Neil Marshall. I’ve pretty much liked every movie that Mr. Marshall has directed and this is no exception.

I call Doomsday “kind of post-apocalyptic” because really only Scotland is in the “post” phase, which the rest of Great Britain seems to be in the midst of a pre-apocalypse. A virulent disease caused the British government to wall off Scotland in a more complete manner than had the Romans, but when that disease surfaces in London 25 years later, that same government needs to send a team north of the wall where there is hope a cure might exist.

The team is led by Eden Sinclair whose origin is in Scotland, and who has grown to be the baddest of asses at the Department of Domestic Security. She leads the team, but their plan doesn’t survive contact with an enemy nobody expected. Even then, she does not give up on her mission.

The homages and inspirations are delivered with delightful exuberance, but this means Doomsday has little new to offer. New can be over-rated, and Doomsday is a great actioner with a good cast and some solid action and tension. Rhona Mitra does a good job of being Snake Plissken – though I liked Guy Pearce’s wise-cracking version of Plissken in Lock-Out better. There are a few idiot plot moments, but not too many.

If you dig movies like Escape from New York and Mad Max, Doomsday is definitely worth a watch. I give it four crack commando teams out of five.

You can read more about Doomsday here.