DoomsdayMovie Reviews

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Avg. Critic Score: 51 out of 100 Mixed or average reviews Metascore^® based on all critic reviews

Information for Parents:

Iffy for 16+

Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

75

Philadelphia Inquirer | David Hiltbrand
One caveat: The film has more blood-splatter than a dozen zombie movies. If you can handle that, Doomsday's drunken mash-up of futuristic and feudal is surprisingly satisfying. Read full review
75

Boston Globe | Wesley Morris
Marshall reveals himself to be a terrific showman of chaos and comic savagery. This is Baz Luhrmann's "Mad Max." Read full review
70

Variety | Dennis Harvey
Neil Marshall's flair for visceral action more than compensates for his script's lack of conceptual novelty in Doomsday. Principally South Africa-shot tale of a post-apocalyptic Great Britain cobbles together large chunks of "Escape From New York," "The Road Warrior," "28 Days Later" and "Resident Evil," but those with a taste for revved-up, splattery fantasy thrills won't be complaining. Read full review
58

The Onion A.V. Club |
Marshall's fixation on John Carpenter and early James Cameron is all too apparent, but his own distinctive cinematic style isn't, making Doomsday a likeably rambling but generic shoot-'em-up. Read full review
50

The Hollywood Reporter | Frank Scheck
Mitra, clad in the requisite tight, sexy outfits, conveys a suitable toughness but little in the way of personality, while such distinguished British actors as Bob Hoskins and Adrian Lester dutifully show up to collect their paychecks. Read full review
50

Austin Chronicle | Marc Savlov
Marshall, like his characters, does not mess around: Good people do bad things to not-entirely bad people while the Man (in this case No. 10 Downing St.) seeks ways to screw everyone. Read full review
50

Los Angeles Times | Jan Stuart
Just to shake things up a little, I guess, the creators of the laughably over-the-top Doomsday thought it might be fun to turn the survivors of a deadly epidemic, rather than its victims, into maniacal murderers. Read full review
50

Entertainment Weekly |
Marshall cribs whole sections from other movies (Aliens and The Road Warrior, most blatantly) so baldly that you have to wonder how he'd like it if someone ripped off "The Descent" this egregiously. Read full review
40

L.A. Weekly |
I still believe with all my heart that no movie with real car stunts, a tough-chick hero, and a severed head that thunks directly into the camera can be all bad. But this is pushing it. Read full review
40

The New York Times |
In terms of story, "The Descent" and Doomsday are as different as two genre films can be, but the falloff in artistic quality is still quantifiable. Where "The Descent" was a slow, quiet, exquisitely modulated, startlingly original film, Doomsday is frenetic, loud, wildly imprecise and so derivative that it doesn't so much seem to reference its antecedents as try on their famous images like a child playing dress-up. Homage without innovation isn't homage, it's karaoke. Read full review

Metacritic link View more reviews for Doomsday on Metacritic

Information for Parents

Common Sense Media says Iffy for 16+ Violent action flick paints a grim, bloody future.

What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this post-apocalyptic action-horror movie is brimming with bloody, splatty, graphic violence. Weapons include guns, swords, arrows, knives, and grenades, and brutal images include suicide by gun, decapitation, stabbing, torture, shooting, fighting, cannibalism, car chases, and crashes. A woman's naked breasts are visible during a shooting; other scenes feature pole dancing and cleavage-revealing outfits. Language includes lots of "f--k"s, plus other profanity. The heroine smokes cigarettes.

Families can talk about the kinds of things that post-apocalyptic movies often have in common. How does Hollywood tend to signal a civilization in decline? What other movies does this one remind you of? What sets it apart? Is it significant that the main character is a woman? How does Eden see the world differently from her male adversaries? How does her traumatic past shape her attitude toward authority and morality?

The good stuff

Positive messages: The main female character is surly but moralistic; the prime minister's assistant is power-hungry and cruel; punked-out tribe in Glasgow is furious and cannibalistic; one young soldier wants to protect a young woman.

What to watch for

Violence: Ongoing graphic, bloody violence. Armed military personnel with guns abuse panicking crowds. Injuries/deaths (including a graphic suicide) from gunshots, trampling, beating, and barbed wire. Many gory images: child's eye bloody from gunshot; smashed, mangled cow and person; decapitation (shown on screen, via grisly prosthetics); stabbing; shooting; cut throat (spurting blood). The infected appear covered in gooey skin and blisters. Combat scenes (in which streets are strewn with skulls and skeletons) feature vehicles crashing, guns, arrows, fighting, swords, and explosions from grenades. Torture scenes include hot poker branding, whipping, punching, and biting. Gladiator-style arena fight features kicking, hitting, knifing, an axe to a head. A cannibalism scene shows a man burned/charred alive; scenes in which the raging crowd gnaws at the meat are grotesque. A rabbit blows up on screen.
Sex: Various cleavage shots. A naked woman's breasts are visible when she's in the bathtub during a raid. Sol kisses his girlfriend lasciviously; he tries to kiss Eden, who bites his lip. Pole dancers wear fishnets, bikini tops, and bikini-style bottoms (their rears appear in close-ups). A masochist appears in black vinyl suit, begging to be hurt.
Language: Frequent use of "f--k" (sometimes with "mother-"), plus other language: "s--t," "bastard," "hell," "damn," "bollocks," "balls," "ass," "bitch."
Consumerism: Not an issue
Drinking, drugs and smoking: Repeated cigarette smoking main characters.

Common Sense Media An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.