First of all, I wish to reassure everyone. If you ever get quarantined in Scotland during an outbreak of a terrifying virus, THERE WILL BE ENOUGH MANIC PANIC HAIR DYE FOR EVERYONE. You will not have to live without that purple mohawk just because the government has left you behind concrete walls to die. Someone in Scotland has also apparently been stockpiling tattoo guns and ink, fishnets, axes, and Adam Ant CDs, so you should be well prepared to make a go of it as part of a cannibalistic tribe whose leader has a fondness for stage shows.

Doomsday is essentially a remix of several other movies. At one point it's Aliens, at several points it's Mad Max, and for about 15 minutes it's Lord of the Rings. This is not a bad thing. It is a bad movie, but we thought it was bad enough to be fun.

Rhona Mitra plays Major Eden Sinclair, a complete badass SWAT team type who is sent into the quarantine zone to find out why the hell the survivors haven't used up all the gasoline yet since it's been 30 years. I mean, to find a cure for the virus since there's been another outbreak. It turns out the survivors are a bit on the nasty side, and mayhem ensues.

I really enjoyed Mitra's portrayal of Sinclair. She's tough, and even though she has some pain from her childhood, the filmmakers don't use it to undermine her authority or her strength. She has one scene with a couple of tears, but aside from that she's all business. I saw only a couple of tiny nods to her gender. One of the government folks says, distinctly enough that the audience is supposed to notice, "We need your best man for this assignment." Then when she meets her squad, one of the guys seems to give her some attitude and is checked by the second in command, but I couldn't tell if it was supposed to be a gender thing or not. There isn't much about Sinclair that would have to be revised if the character were a man. (Perhaps a bit of the chatter from the bad guy while he's holding her as a prisoner, but not by much.)

Sinclair is not a mother, she's not falling in love with anyone, she's not waiting to be healed from her trauma so she can find her feminine side and connect with someone. She's a warrior, and she likes it. Does she walk around in a tank top and skin-tight pants for a lot of the movie? Yes. Do I wish that were handled differently? Yes, but that would be expecting a lot of Hollywood. Sinclair doesn't quite grab my heart the way some of my other four star picks have done (Selene from Underworld, Tank Girl, Lorna from Lethal Weapon 3), but I respect her 100% and I greatly enjoy seeing her fight.

So often, a woman warrior this good is the only woman in the world. Here Doomsday does a little better than I expected. One of the commandos, a tank driver, is a woman. One of the resistance fighters in the quarantine zone is a woman. She's a mixed bag, but she's got some spunk. And then there's Viper. Played by Lee-Anne Liebenberg, she's one of the aforementioned cannibalistic tribe members. She is The Girlfriend, but she's one hell of a vicious fighter and seems like more of a partner in crime than an accessory. Sinclair has to fight her, but Sinclair basically has to fight everyone, so it didn't strike me as the obligatory chick fight.

At this point, only considering gender, I would have given Doomsday a full three stars.

But here is my take on race in Doomsday:

All the women are white. There is one Black Man. He dies helping the white people escape so they can save the world.

Do not complain about spoilers. This is not a spoiler! You can practically guess it from the cast list. (What I wouldn't give to see a movie where one of the scientists was of African descent and one of the commandos was of Asian descent. Let me know if there is one, I will review it immediately. Please note that for this purpose, commando does not equal ninja.) I liked Sinclair's professional relationship with Norton, the African-American commando, because it felt very respectful and human. I would have liked it better if he wasn't so obviously MARKED FOR DEATH.

So I give Doomsday two stars.

That said, if you're not fine with gore, don't see it. Really. I had to cover my eyes several times.