Doomsday Blu-ray Review

[Wayde]

Starring: Rhonda Mitra, Bob Hoskins, Alexander Sidding
Director: Neil Marshall
Studio: Universal
Production Year: 2008
Rating: Unrated
Length: 113 minutes

Movie

Poor Great Britain, just when it looked like it was recovering from the Rage Virus in 28 Days Later and its sequel 28 Weeks Later, in comes the Reaper Virus. The truth is I have a soft spot (located just under my skull) for the horror genre including Zombies. Doomsday’s director Neil Marshall was also responsible for the Descent, a much better thriller that gave me false expectations for this film.

It starts off playing it straight as the horrific Reaper Virus creates a holocaust in Scotland. The nation is quarantined by a great wall that roughly covers the same area of Hadrian’s back in Roman times. Years later it is believed the virus is making a comeback in England. Conveniently a few British officials have been sitting on information that Scotland may have survivors, and survivors means a cure.

A femme fatale named Maj. Edien Sinclair (Rhonda Mitra) that does this removable eyeball trick is sent into the quarantined zone to recover a cure. It’s at this point, if you had any doubt, the movie descends into a campy cheesefest. There’s a moment when a tribe of what can only be described as post-apocalyptic punk rockers gather for an on-stage performance that includes dancing, burning a victim alive followed by cannibalism set to the tune (you guessed it) Good Thing by the Fine Young Cannibals. You now have an idea of what you’re in for. It tries desperately to be a sort of sequel to Mad Max but in my opinion fails.

Doomsday is filled with gross out deaths, over-the-top violence and elongated chase scenes. Expect little else and you may not be disappointed. It can be politely called a homage to other post-apocalyptic thrillers of the 80s. I could normally appreciate this if it succeeded. What I don’t appreciate is an over the top campiness that breaks the spell by continually winking into the camera to show me they’re in on the joke too. At that point the joke is on me for having spent six bucks renting this Blu-ray disc.

The action is shot in this annoying flash-flash-flash style where the camera is never focused on one image for more than half a second. I thought I was going to suffer seizures during the fight scenes. For me, the technique is the kiss of death to any action film.

Video

2.35:1
1080P VC-1
Region Free BD-25

No complaints here, in another fine Universal release the company sets the bar consistently high. The

start of the film appeared to be hiding poor production qualities and bad video quality behind a sheen of inky darkness. But as the move revs up much of it takes place in breathtaking bright daylight. There is more sun in post-apocalyptic Scotland than is to be found in the real Scotland. Blue skies and crazy racing machines all looked beautiful in 1080P.

Audio

English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio

The use of what is probably the finest lossless audio track available is a great bonus for this film. It works all five speakers and your sub regularly throughout providing great directional and creepy ambient effects. Once the movie descends into continuous chasing I found myself getting bored of sound. You can only have so many explosions, steel-on-steel collisions and dull blunt force trauma before it gets repetitive and ceases to have the same wow factor it had at the start.

Special Features

Audio Commentary: by Writer/Director Neil Marshall and actors Darren Morfitt, Rick Warden, Sean Pertwee and Les Simpson.

Universal U-Control: It’s refreshing to have a film that isn’t too loaded down with special features. This Blu-ray disc features Universal’s patented U-Control track. It allows users to access lots of behind-the-scenes footage, cast and crew interviews while watching the movie. That’s the problem with the U-Control feature in my humble opinion. Please Universal, let me access this footage in a simple menu rather than forcing me to go through the film picking them out of a PiP window.

Overall:

If you’re interested in a campy thriller designed to gross you out and exercise your speaker system in a good looking Blu-ray package – look no further. But you like a good sci-fi thriller don't get hung up on Doomsday, you can do much better at your local video store.

Try Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof on DVD or Doomsday Director Neil Marshall’s own Descent, also available on Blu-ray are two films that do similar jobs much better in my opinion. Although it looks and sounds great with Universal’s tested and true commitment to the Blu-ray format, I’d look elsewhere.

[record_breaker]

Good review! Told me exactly what I needed to hear to make up my mind on renting this one.
Thanks