Movie 666

By Demon

Doomsday is a veritable love song to the dystopian actioners of the late seventies and early eighties, when being a hero meant chain smoking, disdaining authority, and often wearing an eye patch. Traversing the worlds of Escape from New York, the Warriors, Highlander, and the Road Warrior (among others, certainly), Doomsday worships its source material on so grand a scale its hard not to imagine John Carpenter blushing.

This movie caught me completely by surprise. As a rule, I deliberately try and stay away from previews and hype before seeing a movie so that I can experience it as fresh as possible, not only for a clean critical perspective but because despite all my all my ranting and raving over the years, I really like movies. Really. Heck, even bad ones.

My method for choosing a movie is based more on director, actor, genre, or subject matter than on anyone else’s hype (I learned a long time ago to never trust the trailer). For instance, if Paul Thomas Anderson makes a movie, I’m going to see it. The same with Neil Marshall, creator of Dog Soldiers and Descent, two top rate horror action films.

For Doomsday, I restrained myself more effectively than usual – no posters, no previews, no reviews. I just sat in the theater and let the screen hit me in the face, having literally no idea of what was about to unfold.

My first impression after about 15 minutes of viewing was that Marshall should be locked inside a maximum security island prison ruled by Isaac Hayes and forced to battle a bald savage with a nail spiked club. What better punishment for stealing Escape from New York, right down to specific shots?

But as the movie rolled forward, I recognized the epic homage taking place. And I think it was somewhere in the middle of “Good Thing,” the Fine Young Cannibals song that plays during the middle of the ritualistic cannibalism scene, I had completely surrendered to this wonderful trip down a memory lane patrolled by bloodthirsty gangs of men with mohawks and motorcycles.

Which doesn’t mean I don’t have a gripe or two. Although I’m a big fan of his films, I really wish Mr. Marshall would take a lesson from John Carpenter (who took his lessons from Howard Hawks) in how to compose and hold a shot for more than two or three seconds. Although some of the editing in Doomsday is downright masterful (the arena-style fight in the castle is beautifully constructed), so much of the movie is frantically edited it’s visually painful to watch, not to mention difficult to decipher what is occurring.

Yeah, it sounds like a fuddy duddy comment, I know. I might accuse myself of getting old if I didn’t know that Marshall is older than me. But of course, he already knows what’s happening. He shot the film. For the rest of us… a little visual exposition, please.

Doomsday, however, has bigger issues than plot duration. Seeing so many classic actioners piled up against one another reminds me why these films are so good in the first place. And it’s not because they are piled up against one another.

Doomsday pulls in so many influences from so many sources, a believable world is never established, and therefore one never truly engages with the characters and their circumstances. Doomsday becomes a movie enjoyed with the head, as one tallies up the references to other films — but not the gut.

This is not to say the movie is a failure in any sense. On the contrary, it’s a remarkable roller coaster ride. But I’d still rather watch the source material – or see Marshall come up with more of his own.

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