Review of Doomsday (2008) by Steven N — 08 Jun 2009

One of the complaints that people so often level against Quentin Tarantino is that his films are nothing more than cobbled-together homages, done with no sense of greater purpose than "Remember that other movie? Wasn't it awesome?" It's a claim that I fervently disagree with (how anyone could see Kill Bill and not see how the homages come together into something far greater than the sum of their parts is beyond me), and as proof, I offer you Doomsday, which is exactly the sort of film people complain about QT making.

Doomsday is helmed by Neil Marshall, whose two earlier films (Dog Soldiers and The Descent) I loved, which made this all the more disappointing. It's packed with homages to films ranging from The Road Warrior to The Warriors to A Clockwork Orange, but the nods exist as nothing more, and are often so randomly tossed together that the resulting film feels incoherent and nonsensical.

I can't say that it wasn't a fun watch, because it was, but it makes little to no sense, feels like a bunch of short films tossed into a blender, can't decide if it wants to be tongue-in-cheek or not, and ultimately just feels like a mess.

It's fun enough, but it's not all that good, especially coming from someone who seems far too talented to make something like this.