Doomsday

The descendants of William Wallace (aka Mel Gibson) and Mad Max (Gibson again, yuck, shame on you Mel!) in a version for 2035 dance a C-grade cancan at the Grindhouse club accompanied by the A-grade rhythm of “Známky punku" (Signs of Punk) by Czech punk band Visací zámek (Padlock). And I join in with Marshall and his crazed pogoing. I as keen as a little kid who’s going to meet Sponge Bob for the first time. The supposedly confused editing didn’t bother me (unlike The Descent) and so I would only fault the needlessly long foreplay to the crazy ride that starts at the precise moment when the first punk Mohawk appears. So don’t spit in this punk-rocker’s face, every movie appeals to somebody’s taste. And let’s hope Doomsday will appeal to enough people for Neil to attract some further projects to the future. It would be a shame to lose him, especially if he gave us more five-star sequences like the forty minutes from escaping from the platform through the adaptation of Twain’s Yankee from Connecticut to King Arthur’s court, all the way to the ending car chase in the Bentley. (07/20/2008)

The creators of the film probably thought that the post-apocalyptic sci-fi genre was currently trending at the time and that they could contribute to it. Do film fans like car chases? They do, so we'll throw some in there. Do they like dark medieval settings? Undoubtedly, we'll accommodate them. Do they like bloody gladiator games? They're already in there. Do they like horror-inducing punks? You got it. And there will be an army of them. What works 100% is bloody violence, so we won't spare that. We'll add some special effects and decent set design - we managed to get the money for that - and to ensure guaranteed success, we'll use a number of tried and true genre clichés and scenes that fans already know from other movies. We just have to mix this whole pulpy concoction properly, and because we are aware that we have created (crap), we will act confidently and disarm any criticism by presenting it as our creative intention. This was probably how things played out during the shooting of  Doomsday, and the results speak for themselves. At times, it is even attractively B-movie-like, but the overall lack of originality and stupidity just ooze from the film. If we're talking about a sympathetically low-budget B-movie, I would bet on Carpenter's Escape from New York, who managed to make a significantly better film with considerably less money. Doomsday is essentially a rip-off of Mad Max and older Carpenter films like Escape from New York or Escape from L.A. Overall impression: 20%. (06/10/2009)

It's as if Neil Marshall is making fun of the whole world. He's got a lot more money than he's used to and he's totally off the rails. There's a lot of gloriously uncompromising violence, badass one-liners, and a perfectly cracking atmosphere. It has its charms and you can tell it doesn't take itself seriously at all, but unless you grew up on Escape from New York and watch Mad Max twice a year, it's probably not going to work for you. The editing could be less chaotic. (04/03/2008)

Of course, the editing is at medium (at least), and it's alarming that the director can't work with such trivial prototypes of the characters he prescribed, but I really enjoyed the structure of the film, which is not stupid at all - it's even playful and reflected. It is a combination of computer game fields (de facto 3 distinctly stylized maps - realpolitik London, punk Glasgow and the medieval Highlands) with a plot of descent into the heart of darkness (including highlighted moments of "transitions" of space-time zones - a steel gate, a steam train and a tunnel under the hill). To take it apart a little more seriously: on the one hand we have pragmatic politician-dominated London, in between an anarchist zone of pure libido and uncontrolled instincts, and on the other hand the "science and intellect" spectrum, which has degenerated into a dark tyranny of the enlightened mind. In the meantime, the protagonist cheerfully surfs, does not negotiate a world remedy and returns to where the whole film belongs - to the cheerful, decadent and entertaining-cannibalistic level (by the way, if the action sequences are edited shitty, the cannibalistic pop culture feast is brilliant!). The order of politicians is corrupt, the scholars have gone mad, so the slightly mutilated Rhona Mitra is one of the raffish Scottish punk and anarchists. No great salvation. I'm very sorry that a second film won't be created, where the suits will fight the enchanted cannibals in kilts. For a long time now, no "childish revolt" had amused me as much as the purposefully naive anarchist rebel Doomsday (a luxurious shiny Bentley vs. Mad Max wrecks... a steaming crowd waiting for a ration of human flesh with plastic plates... like WTF? This is simply brazenly stupid and not superficially stupid). Marshall simply serves declining entertainment without pretense - human meat is grilled to the sound of pop hits. Oh yeah. (10/14/2012)

Slightly above average B-movie crap, which is lucky that it moves fast (something is practically always going on) and entertains, so you almost don't even stop to think about how unoriginal it is. Neil Marshall takes something from many famous (and better) films, throws it in the pot and cooks up this post-apocalyptic stew. It's not a bad meal, but as I said - you can eat it on your own. Leave your brain somewhere better for now. Best scenes: The ambush in the "deserted" town, the feast, Malcolm McDowell's speech (the guy is seriously the devil) and of course the whole final Bentley scene, which is so over the top it's brilliant. (08/17/2010)