Doom (2005)
Director:
Andrzej Bartkowiak
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Karl Urban
Run Time: 100 mins
Certificate: 15
Plot Outline: After contact is lost with a research
base on Mars, a team of marines is sent to investigate and find out what
happened.
The Review: Out of all of the video games that have
been turned into films, the easiest of the bunch to turn into a watchable sci-fi
/ horror flick should have been one of
the titans of the gaming industry - the highly influential Doom. With an easy
storyline, lots of weird and deadly creatures, some dark and creepy settings,
some kick ass weapons and
lots of old school computerised gore, Doom was a groundbreaking game. It
was the revolutionary first-person shooter game which gave birth to a new genre, spawned numerous clones
and which in turn have become some of the most popular and biggest selling games
of all time. So why is
it that this flimsy film adaptation finds it necessary to change the formula
that made the games so influential?
The problems with video game conversions is that what makes the games so
successful is the interactivity with the user and it's something that can't be
replicated on the big screen. Watching video game conversions is like watching
someone else come around your house and play on the game for hours whilst you
sit and watch. What may be mildly interesting at first becomes a chore as you
just want the other person to finish quickly so that you can get back on again.
Doom is probably the best example yet of the hollow video game conversion
where I am sure making it was a lot more fun than actually watching it.
The game is not known for it's
complicated story and in fact the opposite is true - the game is so simple and
free of a major story that the game plays perfectly as your unnamed soldier
wanders around blowing crap out of various demons. Adding loads of scientific
mumbo jumbo and explaining the whole thing as Martian experimentation just adds
unnecessary layers to the film. The monsters in the game were
originally let loose from Hell so for the film to cut out this aspect just
turned them into generic space monsters that we've all seen before in the
numerous Alien clones. Or perhaps even worse, not actual monsters but the
mutated science team who have been injected with Martian chromosomes. Why can't
we just have Hell spew forth it's minions to destroy our world? The monsters
that are presented here are so unmemorable and look nothing like any of them
from the game. As unmemorable as they are, at least the monsters look good with
traditional make-up effects being used for some of the more human ones. Ditching
CGI for these old school methods gets a plus from me any day. I wish they'd have
used these make-up effects for a bit more gore though as the film is lacking in
the red department. Given how bloody the game was, to turn this into a
watered-down kid-friendly version is a big mistake especially considering the
audience that grew up on Doom are infinitely a lot older than the low 15
rating this got in the UK.
Even the setting doesn't really fit. This base is
apparently on Mars but apart from an odd scene here and there at the start, you'd be hard
pressed to distinguish this base from any numerous underground bunkers or space
stations you've seen in the aforementioned Alien clones. Although never
mind Alien, Doom is more akin to Aliens than anything else
and shares so many similarities with Cameron's classic, you might as well just
go back and watch that. The set design is ripped from there and apart from the
main two, the rest of the marines are just as expendable. I thought they were
basing this film on the game and not trying to remake Aliens? The game
has so many unique and mysterious levels that could easily have been replicated
but I guess once the "opening of Hell" story was thrown away, the rest of the
film had to change accordingly. The best part of the film is the
throwaway "first person shooter" scene in which the film runs like a version of
the game where you only see things from the viewpoint of the main character as
he makes his way through some corridors, dispatching whatever creature comes his
way. It sounds good on paper and looks alright for about a minute before it
overstays it's welcome. Some things are best left off in the video game. This is not an actor's film
either which
means that whoever fulfilled the lead roles was going to be up against it with a
poor script and taking a back seat to the special effects and monsters. The Rock
can hold his own in action films (see The Scorpion King) but even here is wasted
here as "Sarge" who's sole purpose in the film is to blow stuff up and then turn
psycho later on in the film. He shows some glimpses of his charisma throughout. Karl Urban makes for a serviceable support actor
but again his character gets a few more lines than everyone else and is
basically there to blow stuff up too. The only one not cast to blow stuff up is Rosamund Pike who plays the token female scientist (after all, cute female
scientists in peril are infinitely more interesting and worth saving than stuffy
old men with glasses, aren't they?). She's also the "plot explainer" so when
she's not screaming in fear, she's explaining to the characters (and thus the
audience) what has been going on and why these creatures are running amok. While
not overly stunning, she's got this undeniable attraction about her.
Final Verdict: Blowing monsters up is infinitely more fun to play on
your own console than it is to watch it on the big screen. Doom seems to
have used only the name from the video game, thrown in a few token nods to it's
fans and decided to go off on a tangent and become the lovechild of Aliens
and Resident Evil. It's not entirely unwatchable but it's almost too
generic to even register on my hate list.
Rating:
