Doomsday (2008)

Synopsis:

Authorities brutally quarantine a country as it succumbs to fear and chaos when a virus strikes. The literal walling-off works for three decades - until the dreaded Reaper virus violently resurfaces in a major city.

An elite group of specialists, captained by Eden Sinclair (Mitra), is urgently dispatched into the still-quarantined country to retrieve a cure by any means neccessary. Shut off from the rest of the world, the unit must battle through a landscape that has become a waking nightmare.

Our Thoughts:

While we haven’t seen Dog Soldiers, we have seen Neil Marshall’s The Descent and thought it wasn’t half bad. His latest film, Doomsday, looks to be taking the horror aspect of The Descent and upping it to the nth power. The only problem - how will this film be able to differentiate itself from other virus epidemic films like 28 Days Later (2003)? Right now, it’s seeming to be a total rip-off of that film’s sequel, 28 Weeks Later (2007).

The only thing that sets this film apart so far is the fact that it’s star is female (namely Rhona Mitra) - and, if they can take a cue from Resident Evil (2002), that could be a good thing. The fact that Rhona’s star is on the rise lately - thanks to her recent performances in Shooter (2007) and The Number 23 (2007) - is bound to help the film out as well (As this looks to be the first time Rhona is headlining a big film, however, expect her career to be sidetracked if the film fails).

The film is already taking one cue from Resident Evil (2002), as the first film of that series also was released in March (I know, since I saw it for my birthday movie). Hopefully, viewers are ready for another virus flick and will flock to this one in droves.

Is Doomsday destined to be my birthday film this year? At this point, that’s hard to say. With Wanted (2008) pushed back to June, and Inkheart (2009) now in the TBA column, Dr Seuss’ Horton Hears A Who! (2008) looks to be the front-runner at the moment for my birthday flick of ‘08. But, a good preview or two for Doomsday may push it to the top of the list.

Guess you’ll just have to come back in March and find out…