The year is 2008 and the United Kingdom is being overrun with a virus called “The Reaper Virus“, it’s a plague that needs to be contained as soon as possible, but it’s getting out of control too fast. As a last effort the government decides to quarantine the area, which is evidently part of Britain and Scotland, but a girl gets saved from a horrible fate when her mother decides to seek mercy for her child with some soldiers on a helicopter. The world criticises Britain’s choice of action and shun them, but the virus continues to breed… Now in 2035 “The Reaper Virus” have come back with a vengeance in London itself and it’s up to Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra) to go back and find a cure.
Directed by Neil Marshall (Centurion, Dog Soldiers), Doomsday is what I’d like to call “The European Mad Max with zombie elements involved” (I know they’re not zombies, they have a virus, but still it’s still got the elements of a zombie film in it). It was a fun film, with a lot of action, adventure and of course enough gore to keep me happy. We even have some sci-fi in it, yes, a futuristic fake eyeball! Oh and we cannot forget the automated machine guns on the walls, that gets bored and does target practice on the wildlife (bye-bye bunny). Okay, it’s probably not the main feature of the film, but it’s still cool. Other than that, Rhona Mitra is our sexy heroine that kicks ass like there’s no tomorrow… what more could we want?
The plot is worked out properly, showing us two different sides to humanity, you have the law abiding citizens on the one side of the wall and on the other side you have lawlessness and mayhem. It’s a modern take on Berlin twenty years ago, basically. Although I doubt Berlin had modern knights in their country… also I doubt that Berlin had castles being used and bloodsport as their favourite pastime. Doomsday bring in all those elements, as well as one of my favourite actors of all time Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange)!
To be fair, there were a few things that didn’t make sense though, for instance one have to ask why these people would turn to cannibalism when there were fields of cows when the team first drove into the quarantined area…? It doesn’t make sense to me personally, but then again, if you take into account the fact that lawlessness is the only way these, most probable orphans of a world that died and renewed, know, then why not?
The acting was good, the directing was good, the audio and visual worked, so all in all it’s a must-watch movie for anyone who’s in the mood to see Mad Max without Mel Gibson, with a bit of crispy human flesh and some decapitations involved. So if you can find it, watch it. You’ll most probably love it… and the Brits will love it because a prime minister loses his mind so to speak, so that’ll probably be a win for them (just imagine David Cameron when that scene comes up)
