Doomsday – Unrated
Blu Ray Title: Doomsday Disk Release Date: 7/29/08 Disk Size: BD-25 Rated: Unrated Screen format: 1080P 2.35:1 HD Studio: Universal/Intrepid/Rogue First theatrical release: March 14, 2008 Previous releases on disk: Day and date with widescreen and fullscreen DVDs Director: Neil Marshall Starring: Rhona Mitra, Bob Hoskins, Adrian Lester, David O’Hara, Malcolm McDowell Sound Formats: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Length: 1 Hour 53 Minutes Subtitles: English, Spanish & French |
Plot: 3.5/5
When Universal first announced their initial slate of BluRay disks I was quite pleased. First, the release of Heroes Seasons 1 and 2 is a no brainer and I cannot wait to get my hands on them, and the Mummy trilogy is a perfect choice, as it was one of the biggest sellers on HD DVD and there is a new Mummy film coming out next month. But this one film, Doomsday, was quite curious in that slate for a very big reason: I had simply never heard of it, nor had many others who were reading the announcements.
When I got the initial slate about 10 days ago, I immediately jumped into the Mummy and Mummy returns, but my interest was piqued on Doomsday, when I had to make the hard decision to keep either it or Scorpion King and hand the other off to another reviewer so they all got visibility, I chose to keep Doomsday and I really glad I did. Doomsday is one of the most fun movies I’ve had a chance to review in a long time. It is unabashedly derivative of just about every genre you can think of, and yet it is its own unique combination of those events along with strong characters that lets it hold up on its own.
The film opens in present day Scotland where an epidemic virus named ‘The Reaper’ begins to spread, killing almost all who come in contact with it. The entire country is quarantined, with a 40’ wall being erected on the border to England (with soldiers and automated sentries killing anything that moves on sight), the coast is mined, and all air vehicles are shot down. No one gets out and nobody wants to get in. A voiceover tells us that the country turns medieval, and that those who survive have begun to eat each other.
25 years later The Reaper virus is discovered in central London. The government begins to quarantine the country but it knows that soon enough that what happened in Scotland will happen in England as well. Conveniently, survivors are discovered in Scotland via satellite imaging, and it is suspected that one of the leading scientists, Marcus Kane (McDowell) may have found a cure. They dispatch an elite team of scientists and soldiers to track Kane down and bring back the cure.
The leader of this team is Major Eden Sinclair (Mitra), one of the few people who made it out of Scotland during the outbreak. She didn’t make it in one piece though, one eye was lost in the scuffle and has been replaced by an electronic version that can communicate wirelessly with her watch, a handy trick. She also lost her mother to the plague, presumably.
Sinclair’s team begins to search for Kane and discovers that there are indeed two bands of survivors, those who are loyal to Kane and have embraced a variant of neo-medievalism, including plate armor, maces, swords and the like, and another group that follows Sol (Craig Conway), Kane’s lunatic son, and these Marauders have embraced punk rock and cannibalism. It’s hard to decide which is worse, but Eden will have to deal with both groups if she is to get through to Kane and bring a cure home.
As noted, Doomsday’s plot doesn’t break too much new ground, but at least its influences are easily identifiable and are terrific in their own right. Clearly the biggest influences are Escape from New York and George Romero’s Zombie films, but Mad Max is also a huge driver for the Marauders and especially of the chase scene which fills the final 20 minutes of the film. Cameron’s Aliens seems to be an influence of the gear and the team.
While the cast is excellent, the lead Marauders take the cake for sure. As Sol, Conway’s over the top performance is tops. Sol’s girlfriend Viper, played by Lee-Anne Liedenberg is a bit more subtle but no less deadly. The two big names in this film are Hoskins who sadly gets very little to do, and McDowell who is heard early on but not really seen until the final act. Both bring a level of credibility and presence that the younger cast members cannot.
It’s the humor and grittiness that really caught my eye on this film however, especially in its uncompromising gruesome horror elements. Videogames have a term for exploding flesh called ‘gibs’ and Doomsday has gibs aplenty, and there were a few times where I simply said to myself ‘no way they are gonna do THAT’ and then they went and did whatever ridiculous stunt I thought wasn’t going to happen and, inevitably, it was even more amusing and satisfying than I could have imagined. While the end of the film wasn’t quite as satisfying as I might have hoped, it was a bit open ended and it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if a sequel or even a TV series would pick up this story somewhere down the line if the right fans find Doomsday on video.
Sound Quality: 4.5/5
On sound quality alone I can see why Universal would have chosen to use Doomsday in their initial slate. Bass is prominent and a constant presence, and its really tight and never boomy. It underscores explosions, gunfire, vehicles, and the music. Surround wise, the rears are constantly chugging, with well positioned environmental data and tons of cross channel sweeps and gunplay. While there is not a tremendous amount of pre-recorded music, what is present is absolutely brilliantly placed, particularly ‘Good Thing’ by Fine Young Cannibals, and that band’s name couldn’t be more appropriate. Tyler Bates’ orchestral soundtrack varies from techno-synth to medieval fight background to chase music with deftness, and while it never calls attention to itself it helps move the film on nicely. End credits ‘Club Foot’ by Kasabian are also perfectly set.
It’s almost perfect, but if I have one nit to pick its in some of the dialogue. Not sure if it’s the accents or the delivery or the mix, but sometimes the front center isn’t really the biggest contributor to all of the riotous stream of sound, and I missed a few things that might have been important later on.
Visual Quality: 5/5
I have zero quibbles, however, with the video presentation. In a word the film is absolutely gorgeous, with fine detail not seen in most other BDs so far. Individual rain drops, motes of dust and individual nooks and crannies in the blown out wasteland are all perceivable, and the grand vistas of Scotland look absolutely stunning. What’s more, even the picture-in-picture elements look amazing. Without a doubt the film looks a lot better than its modest budget should allow. The print is amazingly clean, without a bit of damage, zero edge-enhancement, and a wonderful fine level of grain that gives firm substance to its film origin without being remotely distracting. And it’s razor sharp to boot, with many scenes using thin depth-of-field choices (made by the DP to direct the viewer’s eye to specific on screen elements), giving the in-focus elements extreme clarity and a pleasing ‘bokeh’ to the rest of the frame that is purposefully out of focus. In the exterior shots however there is huge depth of field and these are jaw dropping. If this is the first round of what Uni is bringing to Blu, and it can only get better from here, I say bring it on!
Extra Features: 2.5/5
Not surprisingly, the one area the disk has some mild disappointment is in the extras. There is a very decent Director’s Commentary, where Marshall is joined by some of the non-primary cast members, and it’s filled with some entertaining sections and great background on his choices while making the film, but there’s also some dead air in between too, so don’t expect a full two hour barrage. The only other Extra comes in the form of three integrated ‘U-control’ exclusives. First up is an always available ‘Reaper Virus Files’ which has some minor background data on the Virus, the Marauders, Kane’s supporters and more. Not very interesting but at least it’s a start. More interesting is a ‘Tech Specs’ pop-up that gives more information about the toys that are invented for this film, including things like Eden’s Eye, the Tanks and so on. Finally there are a series of picture-in-picture behind the scenes looks at the filming of specific action sequences. These are all individually selectable or they can play as they occur, which is a nice touch. I am happy to say that this is a true improvement in the evolution of U-Control! It’s still not perfect, and you can’t really be sure what each segment is about until you jump to it, but it’s better than most!
Overall: 4/5 (not an average) Recommended
Doomsday is a rare treat, a film that you had never heard of before that actually is a lot of fun and has quality in all the right places. I suspect it’s going to be one of those films that find its legs out on video better than its tiny box office take would suggest. Recommended!
