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Marshall's Law Bombs Third Time Round
Being a Brit, it often pains me that our film industry is so poor compared to our European neighbours. Whilst the continent consistently produces a variety of intelligent and thought provoking films. Britain seems to flounder in an ocean of predictable rom coms, and second rate gangster movies. Back in the 1960's things were different, we had Hammer making popular horror movies, and Michael Caine was thinking man's spy Harry Palmer. But by the end of the 1970's things had taken a downward turn, appart from the odd period drama, Ken Loach or Mike Hodges film, the glory days of British cinema were over.
So when Neil Marshall burst onto the scene in 2002 with the thrilling 'Dog Soldiers' there seemed to be a glimmer of hope on the horizon. Marshall promptly followed it up in 2005 with 'The Descent' (in my opinion the best British horror film since 'Hellraiser') people started talking of a new dawn in British cinema, and a possible return to the glory days of Hammer.
When I heard Neil Marshall had made a new post apocalyptic film called 'Doomsday', with (by British standards) a big budget, I got very excited. I'd practically been counting down the days, waiting for this film to be released, but sadly my enthusiasm was to go unrewarded, because 'Doomsday' is one great big mess of a movie.
The films plot concerns a supposedly incurable plague in Scotland, the Government's solution is to wall off and quarantine the entire country leaving everyone to die. Thirty years later, and said plague returns, this time to London. The top brass reveal there are survivors in Scotland, and send in a crack unit to try and retrieve an antidote. Unfortunately the survivors aren't the welcoming kind...
It's been pretty well documented that 'Doomsday' is highly derivative, and not without good reason. Almost every scene in this film has been directly lifted from other, better, movies. The primary influences here are 'Escape From New York', (there's even a character called Carpenter for gods sake), 'Mad Max 2 - The Road Warrior', and 'Aliens'. Nods are also made to lots of other action/horror films, so many infact, that I'd be here all day naming them all.
The fact that 'Doomsday' is a derivative movie, isn't why I'm condemning it outright, lots of great movies and directors in this genre pay homage to old classics, and do it with a fresh sense of style and fun (Robert Rodriguez's films such as 'The Faculty' and 'Planet Terror' being prime examples).
Where 'Doomsday' falls down however, is that it adds nothing new to the mix, it's a film devoid of imagination and panache. Ideas are directly copied rather than given a new twist, as a result the entire film has no flow, and merely serves as a reminder of how good the source material was. Another detractor is the soundtrack which is downright awful, dialogue is constantly drowned out by loud incidental music, as if Marshall was trying to compensate for there being no suspense in the film. When he tires of this, we get a variety of 80's pop songs so inappropriately interspersed with the action, it becomes embarrassing. The most cringe inducing example of this, is during the end car chase when we're subjected to 'Two Tribes' by Frankie Goes To Hollywood. A piece of music that makes what was surely supposed to be a thrillingly tense set piece, play as broad comedy.
None of the characters stand out here either, the herione (whose name I can't even remember) is just another Ripley wannabe, but comes off more like Kate Beckinsale from the lackluster 'Underworld' films. Bob Hoskins is good but underused, and Malcolm Mcdowell phones in his performance.
To it's credit the film is mildly entertaining all be it in a ho hum sort of way, but really, genre fans deserve better than this. Disappointing.
Doomsday
Neil Marshall 2008
Neil Marshall 2008
Marshall's Law Bombs Third Time Round
Being a Brit, it often pains me that our film industry is so poor compared to our European neighbours. Whilst the continent consistently produces a variety of intelligent and thought provoking films. Britain seems to flounder in an ocean of predictable rom coms, and second rate gangster movies. Back in the 1960's things were different, we had Hammer making popular horror movies, and Michael Caine was thinking man's spy Harry Palmer. But by the end of the 1970's things had taken a downward turn, appart from the odd period drama, Ken Loach or Mike Hodges film, the glory days of British cinema were over.
So when Neil Marshall burst onto the scene in 2002 with the thrilling 'Dog Soldiers' there seemed to be a glimmer of hope on the horizon. Marshall promptly followed it up in 2005 with 'The Descent' (in my opinion the best British horror film since 'Hellraiser') people started talking of a new dawn in British cinema, and a possible return to the glory days of Hammer.
When I heard Neil Marshall had made a new post apocalyptic film called 'Doomsday', with (by British standards) a big budget, I got very excited. I'd practically been counting down the days, waiting for this film to be released, but sadly my enthusiasm was to go unrewarded, because 'Doomsday' is one great big mess of a movie.
It's been pretty well documented that 'Doomsday' is highly derivative, and not without good reason. Almost every scene in this film has been directly lifted from other, better, movies. The primary influences here are 'Escape From New York', (there's even a character called Carpenter for gods sake), 'Mad Max 2 - The Road Warrior', and 'Aliens'. Nods are also made to lots of other action/horror films, so many infact, that I'd be here all day naming them all.
The fact that 'Doomsday' is a derivative movie, isn't why I'm condemning it outright, lots of great movies and directors in this genre pay homage to old classics, and do it with a fresh sense of style and fun (Robert Rodriguez's films such as 'The Faculty' and 'Planet Terror' being prime examples).
Where 'Doomsday' falls down however, is that it adds nothing new to the mix, it's a film devoid of imagination and panache. Ideas are directly copied rather than given a new twist, as a result the entire film has no flow, and merely serves as a reminder of how good the source material was. Another detractor is the soundtrack which is downright awful, dialogue is constantly drowned out by loud incidental music, as if Marshall was trying to compensate for there being no suspense in the film. When he tires of this, we get a variety of 80's pop songs so inappropriately interspersed with the action, it becomes embarrassing. The most cringe inducing example of this, is during the end car chase when we're subjected to 'Two Tribes' by Frankie Goes To Hollywood. A piece of music that makes what was surely supposed to be a thrillingly tense set piece, play as broad comedy.
None of the characters stand out here either, the herione (whose name I can't even remember) is just another Ripley wannabe, but comes off more like Kate Beckinsale from the lackluster 'Underworld' films. Bob Hoskins is good but underused, and Malcolm Mcdowell phones in his performance.
To it's credit the film is mildly entertaining all be it in a ho hum sort of way, but really, genre fans deserve better than this. Disappointing.