Doomsday

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%. (10/06/2009)

Lacking any sense of proportion, common sense, and higher filmmaking ambition, Neil Marshall commits the craziest cinematic theft on the m2 film box. But he also damn well entertains us for a hundred minutes, lecturing at the High School of Grindhouse in a latex suit, punk haircut, and sword in hand, in a distinguished British style. Hopefully someone will attend the class and learn something. (08/05/2008)

Utter guilty pleasure. Neil Marshall said “sod everything” and put together a relentlessly entertaining tour into the world of computer games and B-movie post-apocalypse without any pretensions other than delivering a deluge of bloody, playful and often unpredictable attractions. Everything starts with the expected generic variation of the zombie subgenre, but the story soon turns into a straightforward badass reflection of declining pop-culture, with a punk cannibal evening in the style of Mad Max that alternates with medieval locations and insane car chases. And our guide through all this unleashed creative nonsense is the incredibly sexy Rhona Mitra – watching her is itself an analytical delight. The editing is a bit too frantic perhaps, but it rarely becomes an obstacle to clarity and Marshall’s narrative dynamics, which I have never enjoyed more. After a second screening I’m giving it 4* and I’m putting Rhona as my desktop background. (20/01/2020)

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. (04/04/2008)

Doomsday offers absolutely nothing new in the post-apocalyptic genre, but it’s still entertaining. I especially appreciated Rhona Mitra's hilarious hi-tech eye. It was interesting to see the effects of the virus on the Scottish population – turning them back into savage Picts with cannibalistic tendencies. No wonder they have always been perceived as a threat by the English. A fun action movie. (26/06/2016)