What is it with British filmmakers? They seem to have a vendetta against the UK, having deadly viruses invading our shores in the not-too-distant future.
We've seen this scenario unfold in 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later, but now Doomsday is jumping on the bandwagon.
Director Neil Marshall's previous feature films Dog Soldiers and The Descent were both shot on incredibly-low budgets, but each effort highlighted his talent for capturing scenes of sheer panic for his audience and characters alike.
But there's something not quite right when it comes to his latest effort.
Doomsday sets itself up to be an amalgamation of iconic action films but, unfortunately, it doesn't really set itself apart from anything we've seen before.
Granted, the film doesn't take itself too seriously, but you can't help but feel you are watching a remake of Mad Max with a few scenes from The Warriors thrown in for good measure.
The story begins in April 2008 when the Reaper Virus hits the fine city of Glasgow, killing tens of thousands of people. So those good folks who run things down in London decide to build a 30ft wall around Scotland to keep the Celts incarcerated, so the virus is isolated and cannot infect the rest of the UK. Some 25 years later, the virus has returned, but it has come back to reap havoc in England.
Satellite imagery taken of Glasgow and Edinburgh shows there are survivors in Scotland. The Government decide that the Scots must have found a cure and group together a crack team of hard-nosed, gun-totting specialists, headed by born leader Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra). She's a no nonsense authoritarian who doesn't suffer fools gladly. Eden leads her troupe through the 30ft wall to find something they have no idea the location of, or what it looks like.
Looking like cast-offs from Starship Troopers, the team explore the rugged wasteland in their 'indestructible' tanks, only to be ambushed by hundreds of mohawked madmen. Now the game of cat and mouse begins, with the team being executed one by one.
Deja vu kicks in when a busload of gang members roll down the street, chasing two of the team to a train station. It's a carbon copy of The Warriors scene where the Turnball Acs are chasing the Coney Island boys to the subway station. The aesthecitics are spot on and the homage to 70s gang flick is inspired, if not a tad cheesy.
To reaffirm the film's Britishness, we see Bob Hoskins popping up, f-ing and blinding throughout, while acting as a rock and mentor to Eden.
Although the narrative begins to feel somewhat aimless and the action sequences are a little arbitrary, neither can do anything to detract from some great action scenes that would have Arnie weak at the knees. Eden drives a Bentley through the gang's bus, causing a huge explosion, and having gang members hanging off cars and vans flying at 70mph reassures us that this is a real action film.
But don't think for a second this film is reinventing the wheel. It purely serves as a regurgitation of classics, without coming under that banner itself.
