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Author Topic: Doomsday  (Read 1473 times)

Valentine McKee

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Doomsday
« on: May 17, 2008, 11:59:32 AM »
To start with those dreaded words: I was really looking forward to this.

A good review from the good doctor, and Neil Marshall hadn't disappointed with Dog Soldiers or The Descent, which both had both done more than your average werewolf/creepy monster genre films.

To start with, this film isn't at all ashamed of it's influences. Instead, it joyfully seems to pack in as many as it can - Escape from New York, Mad Max, 28 Days Later and a fair bit of Planet Terror are all present, along with an added medieval battle!

And it's fast paced, the opening soon has the devastation of Scotland and a deadly virus established, and before you know it, 30 years have passed and a crack team have been sent in to find supposed survivors, and hopefully and immunity. This is where the film fails itself, in it's pace. It's so quick to get to the next set piece that the characters aren't much more than 2 dimensional. Dialog is especially clunky - the best way I can describe it is to fans of South Park - whenever that show slips into parodying genre, and the lines are delivered with all the seriousness that only a bad actor can manage...well these lines are of the same standard, but not delivered with any knowing nod to the audience. Lines such as "you're just full of piss and vinegar" and "you really just don't care, do ya?" come across as lazy, which they are. This took me out of the film.

Also as with Iron Man, character's aren't given much motivation. Amongst the survivors there are two groups, who are at war with each other (not that we ever see any fights between them) but no explanation is to given to why they're fighting. They just are.

The set pieces are great though. A lot of work went into figuring these, and it shows. The final car chase is one of the most enjoyable I've seen since Mad Max 2, and the choice of music...well there's no need to spoil everything!

What this film does is show that even with the action scenes, you have to have characters and a good plot to provide a satisfying experience to an audience. I've seen my share of lightweight action flicks, but Doomsday just crosses that line of being so arbitrary that you can't enjoy it. Best seen rented, when drinking.
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Tequila

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Re: Doomsday
« Reply #1 on: May 18, 2008, 08:08:09 AM »
I think Marshall basically makes the same mistake as Rodriguez did with Planet Terror in that he throws together a bunch of stuff from a bunch of films he likes and thinks it's cool so that it's more of a quotation than a film that stands on its own. It's really irritating to see a film with clear cut segments like this one (one third Escape from NY, one third medieval something, one third Road Warrior). It probably doesn't help to have bad actors in it too, with McDowell putting on his usual B-movie persona and that punk guy trying his best to be really, really scary.
« Last Edit: May 18, 2008, 11:11:34 AM by Tequila »
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Valentine McKee

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Re: Doomsday
« Reply #2 on: May 18, 2008, 10:52:55 AM »
I agree with that - but for me Planet Terror succeeded by having the right amount of campness to it.

It's not that Doomsday takes itself seriously, just the actors don't have that element of self-knowing fun that's necessary.
The cat's in the bag and the bag's in the river.