March 14, 2008

Friday Morning Movies: "Doomsday"

By Stan Dyer

If you are hungry for a Sci-Fi movie, but you are not certain which genre appeals to you, this is the movie to see. It is a Mulligan stew of a variety of Sci-Fi genres with everything except a huge monster, an alien invaders, or a serial killer.

The movie begins in April 2008 with a mutant, killer virus, the "Reaper Virus", attacking Glasgow, Scotland. Unable to contain, control or eliminate the virus, the entire city is fenced off, and, later, the entire country is sealed behind a tall, iron wall suitable for King Kong. Just before welding the wall shut for good, a small girl with an injured right eye escapes on one of the last helicopters out. Her name is Eden Sinclair.

Eden Sinclair grows to adulthood and becomes a Laura Croft type character working for the government in drug enforcement. When the Reaper Virus emerges again, government officials choose her to lead a team back in behind the sealed walls to discover how some of the quarantined people there survived and to bring back their vaccine.

Her team heads into the no-man's-land in vehicles similar to the ones in the Aliens movie. It is not long before they are attacked by mutant, punk rockers, (complete with Mohawks, died hair, leather, tattoos and piercing), in a scene from Mad Max. Apparently, the people left behind decayed into a virtually anarchical society and are a bit upset with people from the outside, whom they thought no longer existed. It is a credit to their ingenuity that they are able to manufacture exquisite leather goods, body art and functioning mechanical equipment despite being separated from the outside world for so long. Yet, they hold a grotesque secret. Their version of Thunderdome is a Texas-Sized "human" barbecue. Even though they previously believed no one existed beyond the wall, they now vow to capture and eat all who enter. Eden Sinclair and her team manage to lose only one member to the feeding frenzy before escaping into what appears to be Sherwood Forest.

In the forest, they are captured by "Molly Hatchet" and taken to the medieval castle of King Kane, (Malcolm McDowell). Kane once was the scientist working to find the cure for the virus and Eden Sinclair believes he might have the vaccine she seeks. Kane is not interested in helping her. He tells her that there is no vaccine and that the people surviving did so through natural selection. In a bit of a twist, Kane tells Sinclair that now the outsiders are the invaders and only those of truly pure blood now live behind the gate. To pay for her sin of possibly infecting his people, she is put into an arena and forced to battle the new "Master Blaster", the King's executioner.

Despite lacking weapons, she is able, (with the help of friends), to defeat the King's executioner and escape with most of her team to a military bunker where the team uncovers a fueled and ready Bentley worthy of a James Bond film, but without the Bond add-ons. They use the Bentley to head for a pick-up point where they expect to rendezvous with a gunship helicopter, deliver the captured survivor, ( for use in developing the vaccine), and escape with their lives. After a wild, Mad Max road race with the first group of survivors who have not yet given up, what is left of the team reaches the rendezvous point and turns over the hostage. The movie ends with Eden Sinclair refusing to leave, returning to Glasgow to uncover her past, and ending up back at Thunderdome with the head of the former leader. She drops the head and says, "If you're hungry, you can have a piece of your friend", paving the way for a sequel.

I give the movie a "B". If you like mixed genres, graphic violence and gratuitous bloody scenes with plenty of vehicles crashing, explosions and fighting, then you will enjoy this movie. The plot works, but barely. The general idea of what is happening is conveyed, but the audience is left to fill in too many gaps. High school aged kids would really like this movie, but, unfortunately it is rated "R" and most are not old enough to legally get in. This is not a good movie to take a date to, unless you both really enjoy the "Ultra Violent".

Just the facts:

Title: Doomsday

Director: Neil Marshall

Rating: R, Run Time: 1 hour 45 minutes, Genre: Sci-Fi

Main Actors: Rhona Mitra as Eden Sinclair, Bob Hoskins as Bill Nelson, Adrian Lester as Norton, Alexander Siddig as John Hatcher and Malcolm McDowell as Kane