Doom (2005) Reviews

• Good...for a video game

  AdderCowley2007-05-29

  Doom is not a masterpiece. However for what it is, a video game to movie franchise, it does a decent job. I was watching this film when suddenly my parents came in. They immediately sat down and watched the last 50 minutes with me. Surely that's an indication that the film itself wasn't too bad. My favourite part of the movie was the FPS scene. It showed a level of originality which has been absent in other Video game movies, such as the Resident Evil franchise. Another Pro was the casting of the Rock as Sarge and Karl Urban as Reaper. Both made decent performances in the movie. The level of action was decent and I was happy that the film branched out a bit further than the 90 minute restriction. Furthermore I particularly enjoyed the fact that the makers decided to use models and suits, similar to Alien rather than rely on CGI. It again shows a level of originality that implies the makers wanted the film to stand out and was not there just to make money. The cons were that overall the acting was not great. The other marines for example, other than The Rock and Urban, did not put in great performances and Rosamund Pike, I think was particularly bad. They seemed an ordinary group of guys thrust into battle. They just didn't seem to act like a group of elite, disciplined soldiers. It just didn't feel realistic. Another con is that the film was not particularly scary. The actual game is deemed to be one of the scariest games out there to play. So it feels an opportunity missed that the film was not a terrifying roller-coaster ride filled with suspense and was more like a variety of action sequences containing grim monsters. All in all Doom is a movie which is by no means perfect, is a decent film for what it is. A video game.

• Movie delivers what it promises

  boolya34562006-01-29

  I, unlike other people, did not find this movie to be a disappointment. I didn't go into this movie with high expectations. A movie based on a video game will never have an amazing story, or exceptionally good acting worth an academy award. A movie like this will have good action, reasonable suspense, and be the type of movie you can watch again and enjoy it just as much as the first time. For the most part, this movie lives up to those expectations. It has good action sequences, it is a re-watchable movie, and the storyline isn't quite as bad as I thought it would be. Sure, they changed stuff from the video game during the transition, but it still worked, and you cant expect everything in the video game to work as a movie, they had to change some things to help the cinematic view of it. I would recommend this movie to anyone who wants to watch a movie with solid action sequences and anyone who is looking for some fun with their friends.

• Part DOOM, part something else

  JemyM2006-02-04

  *Warning* This review contains mild spoilers to the GAME, but not the movie. A dig in the nevada desert have found a portal to an ancient city on mars. Since then, scientists have struggled 20 years to find out more about the civilization that built the city and why they disappeared. Apparently they found something. In an emergency transmission sent from the science facility on mars a head scientist explains that there is a "level 5 breach" and quarantine procedures must be implemented immediately. A squad of elite soldiers are sent to the science facility on Mars to protect and retrieve property and make sure quarantine is kept. What they find is naturally more than they are trained and equipped for. This is another game that made it into the silver screen, and the DOOM franchise isn't exactly known for it's multi-depth story lines. This made me seek out and watch this movie with plenty of ice in my stomach, ready to forgive the producers for mistakes they made. And mistakes were made. The greatest one was of course to change the entire plot. As a gamer who put more value in story than the action, I would personally say that the DOOM3 storyline was better than the movies (completely changed) storyline. In the game the city plays a central role. In the movie you never leave the work areas, you never get to see the old ruins. The city isn't even mentioned beyond the intro. Beyond 2 <10 second scenes, you do not see the Mars exterior. You barely register that these events take place on Mars, not on earth. The artifacts that played a central role in the game is not mentioned or present in the movie. The entire "Hell is loose" plot was completely cut away, the events of the movie blamed onto something *COMPLETELY* different. The theme "one man against hell" became "a few men and their issues". The ghost of the little girl (one of the games scarier parts) did not make it to the move. DOOM3 was also a horror experience playing both on achluophobia (fear of darkness) and Monophobia (fear of being alone), this was an aspect missing in the movie where areas was lit and the characters was always going at least two and two. I almost think the movie could have been better if they hired less actors and put more money on storywriters. Another aspect completely gone is the ambient red tone of being on mars, something that could have added a more artistic flavor to the movie. Except for very short moments in the beginning of the movie you never see that these events in fact take place on mars. I was not happy to see the storyline almost completely changed and the horror downscaled to almost not scary at all with nothing better added to it. There are no deep questions asked here, no philosophical submessage to the audience to go home thinking about. This is a lighthearted actionmovie and that's it. The most faithful part (to the game) is the labs and the monsters. he developers who made the game gave the areas/monsters/weapons an unique design that wouldn't have been right to move away from. If you care zero about the plot, then yes this is DOOM. There's also the first person sequence in which we get to follow a series of events through the eyes of a soldier when he runs around and shoot monsters in corridors. It was fun, although I would say that it failed to capture me. I was mostly annoyed with the choice of music and it could have been more scary. I see some ways this movie could have been made better with the material it's based on, but I did not expect it. At least the action is well done. If you want 2 hours of entertainment that wont change your world, DOOM offers just that. If you do not watch many movies and want some extra quality when spending time on one, you can jump this one. Game-movies so far are between "awful" and "ok". This one was "ok".

• Not a masterpiece by any standards, but good enough for what it is!

  jellyneckr2006-03-28

  There are certain genres that are despised no matter what. The genre of movies based on video games is one of those and rightfully so. There have been a large amount pretty awful video game adaptations of such games as Wing Commander, Super Mario Bros., Tomb Raider, Street Fighter, Double Dragon, and House of the Dead. There have been, however, some decent adaptations like Mortal Kombat (the first film, not the sequel) and the Resident Evil films. Now that I've viewed the unrated version, DOOM can be added to that list. Although not nearly as stylish and entertaining as Mortal Kombat or Resident Evil, DOOM may not be the mind-blowing spectacle that fans of the video game were hoping for, but at least it knows what it is: a fun ALIENS knock-off. Unlike ALIENS, Doom lacks a strong story and well-developed characters that the audience can cheer for. The characters here are barely one dimensional. They are given essentially no motivation for what they do and as a result, the movie suffers. Still, it's better than one would expect thanks to some slick directing, a couple solid action sequences, and The Rock. 7/10

• Doom - Faithful? No. Good film? Yes.

  CapnMikel2005-10-22

  So many people everywhere have some sort of Doom memory. Whether it be playing with friends, siblings, or hell even family, Doom seems to be something that anyone who's played enjoys. If anyones seen the film Alien and Aliens -- the difference between the original dooms and Doom 3 is exactly the same. Doom 3 being more like alien, more horror with less action, and the originals like Aliens, more action, with some horror. Now the film review. After seeing my title, "Faithfull no? Good film? Yes." your probably wondering how it could be unfaithful to the games and still a good film at the same time -- i'll explain. Anyone who's played any doom game as much as I have(Which is a lot) will DEFFINTLY be disappointed in this film. It's got light rough elements of the original games in there yes, but not enough. Lets not even talk plot for a moment. Say the whole 'hell' involvement thing didn't even matter. Think demons, think weapons, think action/horror. Thats what dooms always been about more then anything, right? Right. Which is why this film comes to a disappointment. Lets talk demons first: They included 4 of the demons from the doom games, The zombie, The imp, the pinky, and the baron/hell knight whichever you want to call it, it really dose't matter in this case. The zombies behaved well, like zombies. You don't see much of them, but you see them none the less and they never do crap. You just see them die. Thats it. The imps and barons? They don't shoot fireballs anymore sadly. The barons use brute force, while the imps either just scratch or attack you with their tongue to turn you into an imp, IF your souls 24th chromosome is declared "Evil." If thats not bad enough, you don't even get a good look at them or see them very much! The pinky, he was in one very short scene, and pretty much just acted like a slow CGI monster, so it was kinda obvious. It was fun to see it get slashed with the chainsaw, one of the few moments that everyone loved in doom. Though, in doom 3 they at least explained why chainsaws were on mars.. Weapons: You see the rocket launcher picked up, but never used. You see the shotgun shot ONCE in a very dark scene, meaning you see flashes and hear a shotgun sound and thats it. The big mini gun/chain gun was used ONCE to shoot a monkey. Other then that you see the machine gun used the WHOLE time, and the BFG used twice. The double barrel shotgun and plasma gun don't even get a mention! The chainsaw just happened to be on a random table and used to kill the pinky. The pistol was used a few times. Shooting wise - this film was dull. The first person section was really the only place you felt doomish, other then the 2 times the BFG was used. Not to mention the BFG color changed from green to blue.. The action / horror: You don't see much of it. You see some action here and there, but it's mostly random. You don't see much shooting and stuff dieing. You do, but it's dark not very gory and hard to see. The horror? Absent in this film sorry to say. They tried 1-2 cheap scares, which didn't even work.. Plot: I'm not going to go into this. Only one thing to say : Not doom. The plot of hell and demons was taken out, and replaced with a genetics plot. Not much else to say. Now i've explained why it's very unlike doom, i'm going to say one more thing on the matter, and thats that the soundtrack was nicely done(Remiended me of the original doom music sort of..) and the sets were constructed mostly very well and close to the game. The next part of this review: Good as a movie. Anyone who's never played a doom game, can DEFFINTLY enjoy this. Anyone who's never played video games: Can ENJOY this. They won't understand the FPS section maybe, but you can still enjoy it none the less. As a sci fi film, it's not the best out there no, but it's pretty well done, and if you don't see it as seeing Doom the movie, and just some sci fi movie on mars, you can DEFFINTLY enjoy the film. The plot, is out there yeah, but it explains why some people are infected and others are not. It explains a lot about chromosomes, and hey, they even included an ancient civilization bit, which was in the game, AND makes sense in this plot. Don't worry about knowing nothing about the games - it won't matter. You'll be able to understand it all. Overall, you can defiantly enjoy the little action mixed with the strange sci fi plot, into a nicely mixed film that lets not refer to as doom. My final judgment: If your a doom fan see it, but don't expect to like it. You may enjoy it as a film, but you won't like it as doom. If your a video game fan, see it, you'll probably find yourself enjoying it. If you like Sci-Fi, give it a go, if you haven't seen Sernity yet, which is the only other sci fi playing to my knowledge at the moment. If you just want a movie to see on a Friday night with some action, go for it. If your looking for a in depth rich story lined sci fi action combined film, go rent aliens.. I gave this a 6/10, because though unlike doom, it was still a well done film, and maybe one day Hollywood will learn to make a successful video game adaptation..