Over-the-top sci-fi formula plagues "Doomsday"

Doomsday

By Frank Scheck

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - If mankind ever indeed does go to hell, it's less likely to be because of alien invasions, natural catastrophes or killer viruses than an overdose of postapocalyptic sci-fi thrillers, the latest example of which is this cheesy entry from director-screenwriter Neil Marshall.

Squandering the estimable cinematic credibility the filmmaker garnered with his last effort, the spooky horror film "The Descent," "Doomsday" comes all too close to approximating its title.

Rhona Mitra, channeling such genre predecessors as Sigourney Weaver, Angelina Jolie and Kate Beckinsale, plays the tough-as-nails heroine, the one-eyed Eden Sinclair. Set in the not-too-distant future, the story concerns Eden and her ragtag crew of mercenaries as they are enlisted by the British government to enter a walled-off Scotland that has been quarantined since the onset of a deadly plague.

There, they must search for a cure for the disease, which has infected the rest of Britain. It presumably lies in the hands of a proverbial mad scientist (Malcolm McDowell, a long way from his Kubrick glory days) ensconced in a remote castle.

Along the way, the team must deal with rampaging gangs of punk-style cannibals led by a Mohawk-haired savage with the unlikely name of Sol (Craig Conway).

The film includes the usual unending series of high-speed chases and brutal fight scenes of every variation imaginable, all filmed in the sort of hyperkinetic style by now endemic to these witless genre efforts.

The violence is very much of the R-rated variety, with numerous body parts being blown or shot off, several scenes of immolation and cannibalism and, to add insult to injury, a poor bunny rabbit being blown to smithereens.