Movie Review: DOOM

Published by RoME on FragArcade.com

To coincide with the February 7th DVD release date of the movie, DOOM, I have taken the time to review this DVD. Don't ask how I got my hands on it, cause I'm not telling!

I'll be honest with you: I did not think this movie had much of a chance. The game is not exactly known for its storyline and video games do not have the best track record in their conversion to movies. I hated the Resident Evil movies and of course Mortal Kombat from the 90’s was terrible. Excuse me if I came into this movie a little cynical about video game movies, but to my surprise, this turned out halfway decent.

It is not like they had much content to work with as far as the plot is concerned. As I said, the game is about shooting monsters that jump out of the darkness and opening doors only to find more monsters on the other side, so the source material is pretty weak-sauce. Basically, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson of WWE fame leads a team of Marines to the Red Planet after a distress call informs them that the team on Mars is in need of urgent help.

Apparently, a few years in the future a teleport system is discovered in some part of Nevada that transports its passengers to Mars. On the Olduvai Research Station, supposedly they are conducting archeological digs, finding a human “super species” on Mars. The Marines quickly find out that there is more to the story than is being told to them by scientists on the station.

The movie admittedly starts slow. There are few action sequences until about halfway through and the only thing keeping the movie dragging along are the plot elements, including the distress call coming from a doctor being attacked, the marines preparing for combat, reaching the station and walking around until they finally run into the monsters. I was wondering for the longest time if things would ever get exciting.

There is not a whole lot to it, but once the action gets started, the movie begins to pick up. If you were a fan of the first Resident Evil movie, you will probably like Doom as well. Like Resident Evil, Doom is loosely based on the game but remains loyal enough to where gamers should not be disappointed. Like I said, there is not much story to work with anyway, so reworking the Resident Evil movie’s plot with a more sophisticated crew of actors seems to work just fine. The actors pull off their roles well enough to make it believable.

As far as extras go, the Unrated Extended Edition has a few. First, you have the Basic Training, which shows how the acting crew trained for their roles with weapons and basic training. Rock Formation joins make-up artist Jeff Dawn as he applies prosthetic make-up on The Rock for the final fight. Master Monster Makers goes in-depth with the crew in charge of making the monsters from foam and rubber. Doom Nation is a documentary on the Doom franchise with interviews from John Carmack and Tim Willits of id. Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb of G4 fame are also featured. Finally, the final extra feature is the Doom 3 Xbox demo, which I didn't try because the only console I own is the PS2.

What do the players think?

(digismack) "The movie had it's ups and downs. Though, more downs than ups. It seems like they ran out of budget after making the set and hiring the Rock."

(Nokarot) "I couldn't smell what The Rock was cookin' :("

(]km[forn1x) "DOOM in and of itself was not a 'terrible' movie, I have definately seen worse. It was 'interesting,' if i were to use a particular word to describe it. Ewe Boll, or however you spell it, is notorious for taking video games, twisting the plot for a more mainstream audience, but leaving enough to somewhat satisfy that of the game's following. This is exactly what he did with DOOM. DOOM did, however, have an interesting notion implemented into it which so many of today's 'blockbusters' (and I use the word loosely), lack. This being the decline of the 'star' and/or usually is, the main character, in this case, Sarge - played by none other than The Rock. In the movie, I hate to spoil it if you haven't seen it, Sarge is captured by the mutated creatures and slowly transforms into one itself. Not only this, but catches the ripe explosion of a grenade to the face, obliterating him and leaving the new protagonist (whoever the other marine is) the last man standing. The worst part was where it got really corny, which was during the fight sequence between the moderately consumed Sarge and the new protagonist, this rather lengthy battle was filled with some pretty bad special effects, unrealistic movement / enviroment damage, and your ever so humorous 'SEMPER-FI, MOTHER FUCKER.' DOOM had a constant flow until this sequence, thus it was my least favorite. The first person sequence was kind of neat, it was really corny, but neat. It reminded me of the old arcade style games where you held the gun and it moved your view around. The corny parts where the monster would look at you, his eyes get big, and he'd run away for his life caused for some laughs and was enjoyable, this sequence I don't think was all that meant to be 'scary' but moreso a comedic break for the movie. There was alot of 'flashing' of explosions and whatnot during the first person sequence, so be careful if you are sensitive to those sorts of things."

([PQ3]RogeR) "I found the movie very exciting. I really enjoyed the scene where Dr. Carmack turned into a zombie and staring attacking the others. The first person sequence scene was something I believe only gamers could really appreciate. I did enjoy it through especially when we got to see the chainsaw in action."

(WARLOCK) "It wasn't the greatest, but definitely worth watching. The best part of the movie was the first person scene in the end; all fps players will love it. I'd have to say the worst part about it was it was too short. The first person sequences were the sh*t!"

(Special) "It was good but not great, the best part was the last fight and the first person part of the movie. The worst part of the movie was well the fact that the movie wasn't really scary at all and the game DOOM is scary. The game scared me more than the movie."

Conclusion:

If you are a fan of the Doom video game franchise, you will probably like this movie. If you were a fan of Resident Evil, you will probably like this movie. If you like being chased by super-human monsters with twenty four chromosomes, you will probably like this movie. Sure, it lacks a deep logical plot, but what movies geared at the 18-25 group don’t? You’re about as likely to watch this movie for plot as you are to play the Doom videogame for a plot. In other words, throw that idea out the window and prepare for lots of bullets. Strap yourself in, Mars is a long ride. The first person shots in the movie were also very nice. I look forward to the days that my FPS video games look as good as the movie.

RoME'S RATINGS
Movie:	7
Video:	8
Audio:	8
Acting:	7
Extras:	6
Overall:	7.2

Visit RoME's Review Guide for more information on how I come up with my scores.