'Doomsday': Awesome!
BY CHRIS GAETANO Staff Writer
Movies about killer viruses wiping out vast swaths of the population seem to be springing up like, well, the plague lately, and consequently, the genre is quickly approaching the point of becoming a cliché. "Doomsday," written and directed by Neil Marshall, stands as a stark example of this.

Killer virus with an intimidating name and gruesome symptoms? Check. In this case, it's the Reaper virus which makes its victims break out in horrific oozing sores and vomit blood. Heavy-handed government response to contain the sickness, thus creating massive social unrest that threatens to overwhelm civilized society? Check. This time, it's a 30-foot steel-andconcrete wall bristling with gun turrets that cuts Scotland, where the virus first appears, off from the rest of the world. Inevitable failure to maintain security and order, thus propelling the plot? Check. A crack team of elite soldiers and scientists are assembled in response to the virus reappearing past the wall. Their mission? Find a cure. Of course.

Yet, just because something is cliché, does this necessarily mean that a movie is bad? Cliché is considered bad storytelling form because it's the mark of narrative laziness, letting people get away with using well-worn symbols and images that produce an associative reaction in the audience already familiar with their implications. However, it is not the cliché in and of itself that takes away from a story's quality, but the lack of actual work that the cliché can cover up. If the actual work is done, if a movie is still finely crafted, if the story actually holds up, then the use of cliché is merely incidental, one more tool used in the creation of a fine movie.

With this in mind, it must be said: "Doomsday" may be clichéd, but it is good. Really good. Not "so bad, it's good" as the advertisements for the movie suggest. Genuinely, truly good. In fact, it's not that far of a stretch to call the movie awesome, or even AWESOME!

Yes, it is chock full of references and clichés taken from other post-apocalyptic films, such as "Escape From New York," "Mad Max" and "28 Days Later" - a lesser person might say that "Doomsday" simply ripped these films off. However, a more accurate view is that this film has learned from its predecessors and honors them through their inclusion. The allusions are so blatant but so well executed that rather than dragging the genre down through shameless imitation, it attempts to elevate its conventions into film's exalted pantheon.

The movie opens with a voice-over explaining the emergence of the Reaper virus on April 3, 2008, in Glasgow, Scotland. The British government, panicking at the prospect of a worldwide deadly plague, declares martial law and begins preparations to quarantine Scotland with a gigantic wall. This, however, does not go over very well with the Scottish, who rush the gates and attempt to break through, leading the soldiers to mow down wave after wave of them with machine-gun fire.

Once the gates are sealed, the voiceover explains that the waters around Scotland are now mined and patrolled, and the entire region has been declared a no-fly zone. No one gets in or out. Riots engulf the now-isolated Scotland before the virus, reportedly, claims every life there.

Fast forward to 2035. Britain is in the midst of an economic crisis with hundreds of thousands unemployed. Crime is rampant, especially drug dealing. During a routine drug raid, in which the main character, Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra), gets the opportunity to demonstrate that she is a walking murder machine, plague victims are found holed up in a back room. The Reaper virus has come to Britain.

The government contingency for this happening is to flood the Thames River and create a moat around London, where the new outbreak was identified, cutting the city off much like they did to Scotland back in 2008. It is acknowledged that such a thing will cause the same human horrors that the previous quarantine caused. However, recent satellite footage provides another option. People have been seen in Scotland, years after it was thought nothing there was alive. If there are people, they think, there is a cure.

Sinclair and her team have 48 hours to find that cure in a land that has not seen outsiders in 27 years. Driving through the gates in two armored cars, they find the cities deserted, the buildings overgrown with weeds. Their first lead is to look for a scientist who stayed behind, continuing to look for a cure.

While there, they encounter tattooed cannibals, who really like British postpunk band Siouxsie and the Banshees, medieval throwbacks, complete with knights on horses, and a sports car that acts as, perhaps, the most obscenely obvious piece of product placement in recent cinema.

Blatant references include "Mad Max," "The Warriors," "Braveheart," "28 Days Later" and "Escape From New York." There are many more that are subtly implanted, but, again, this really isn't that much of a concern.

One of the more interesting things about the story is its exploration of how post-apocalyptic societies can form and interact with one another. The aforementioned cannibals, for example, are fairly standard post-apocalypse fare, especially when they're riding on motorcycles and in beat-up, tricked-out buses. Meanwhile, another society has set things up a bit differently by becoming a total medieval throwback society, shunning the modern world. These two societies exist in a sort of cold war with each other, archetype suspicious of archetype, with the main characters caught in the middle.

This movie is a remarkable departure from Marshall's previous film "The Descent," which was drawn out and subtle in its horror, only exploding into action during the film's climax. "Doomsday," on the other hand, is filled with sequences in which guns blaze and cars explode, blood spewing in every direction. While this is fun, the creeping horror of "The Descent" still makes for a more enjoyable and memorable movie. Still, although "Doomsday" isn't Marshall's greatest film, it's still worth watching due to the fact that it is just so freakin' awesome.