Rating of
1/4
"Doomsday" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 03/02/12
A plague epidemic breaks out in Scotland, which is promptly quarantined and abandoned to its own fate. Three decades later a military unit is sent in to investigate the possibility of a cure when the virus reappears in the ghettos of London. After the hugely enjoyable Dog Soldiers, I held high hopes for Neil Marshall. Although it was clearly inspired by Predator, it was done with enough wit, homour and invention to make me think we may have found Britain's answer to Sam Raimi. Unfortunately after the tepid The Descent and now this dismal mess my hopes have been thoroughly crushed. The opening of the film is a pure rip off of Escape From New York, down to the retro computer graphics and synth soundtrack, and he even uses the same on screen type face for the subtitling. It then turns into a made for TV standard regurgitation of Aliens that steals plot devices, lines and even shots, returns to raping Escape before a climax that is EXACTLY the same as The Road Warrior. The dialogue is nothing more than glib soundbites and mockney swearing and although Rhona Mitra looks good in a catsuit, the cast are all rubbish. Not to mention cuts that are so fast (I'm talking FRACTIONS of seconds) that they become seizure inducing. This film is nothing more than an incoherent cover version of all Marshall's 80s favourites that transcends fanboy masturbation to become outright plagiarism and is enough to convince me that he is actually Britains answer to Paul W S Anderson. "Bollocks", as they say in Scotland circa 2035.
