Doomsday? I remember seeing the trailers for it in the theater, but then it just kind of disappeared. For some reason, it came across my radar and I acquired it. The trailers hadn’t been that enticing, in all honesty, but the movie stands its ground. Imagine Glasgow filled with G.G. Allen clones in a ‘post-apocalyptic’ cannibal society. Now imagine that a super-hot police agent is going in to fight them. If that hasn’t piqued your interest, I don’t know what will. How about this:

Take the better parts of 28 Days Later, The Road-Warrior, Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, Waterworld and put that unique (gothic, and often brutal) Scottish spin on it, and you’ve got this movie. It has just enough ‘sci-fi’ to it to lend the fact that it’s supposed to take place in 2035, but still manages to ring of Lord of the Flies. Take a deep breath: it echoes of the nihilistic presentation found in Johnny Mnemonic. The closest comparison to style would be the version of Beowulf starring Christopher Lambert. Yeah, a little steam-punk, but darker. Think Takashi Miike dark: the bloodier scenes are excessive (yet brief enough to not be overboard).

The fight scenes are well done. The build-up scenes that I would normally find boring were timed well enough that they actually added to the drama. The varying scenes, plot twists and oddities are enough to make up for the length of the movie. There’s a Gladiator scene, too. The cast seems to be made up mostly of folks I’ve either seen as long-time characters on television shows, or as excellent minor supporting roles in previous movies. Nobody seemed to be out of place or mis-cast (something that cannot be said for many films). I actually felt a bit let-down by the new-wave-ish soundtrack, thinking they should have gone with more of a darkwave (Dead Can Dance, Cocteau Twins, etc.) sound. No movie is perfect.

I’d like to see more flicks like this.

4.5/5

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