I’ve noted this past week just how bad Doomsday is (a couple times, actually) but previously failed to mention that one of the more unusual and curious elements of its failure is the sound design, which is mixed too high only, and notably, in non-action scenes. Composer Tyler Bates‘ cheesy instrumentation notwithstanding (he dabbles all over the map, to poor effect), Doomsday‘s sound mix masks simple dialogue and (arguably) crucial expository set-up, which is usually a sign of a director not trusting his or her script. The rub? Director Neil Marshall wrote the screenplay here as well, raising the crucial question: is a somewhat self-aware hack better than a hack who doesn’t know they’re a hack?