I am a long running fan of DOOM, I played the games when they were originally released, countless mods, and I even enjoyed DOOM 3 - which represents a rather rough divide for fans. So, of course I'd want to watch the movie when it came out. And, I did. Nowadays, yes, it is considered a utterly terrible movie and people usually just hate it for no good reason, but I remember the movie being not too bad but generally just 'OK' to everyone around me. Initially, nobody really hated it, there was no genuinely strong opinion on the film. I suppose it wasn't until a host of Youtube critics came about to pick through bargain bins, desperately in search of new material to review, decided to tear it a new one. Is it really that bad though? Well, of course not. DOOM is highly representative of the early 2000's, with a bunch of tough talking muscle bound men running around mimicking Aliens. Each character is pretty much defined by their code-names and what weapon they carry, or sometimes some off-center quirk. With DOOM, you do get a little more, with characters being somewhat determined by their moral flaws, as the movie tries to have some rough concept of good and evil, but it ultimately isn't utilized - perhaps because some of the creators found it to be a little too obvious. For a game series with no characters, people were lucky they got this at all. Surprisingly, as well, there is no forced love story, instead the drama is mostly focused on a brother and sister reconnecting after a family tragedy. I found this extremely refreshing and it kept things from being too typical, but it wasn't significant to the plot. Hell, it wasn't even the reason the main character, Grimm (played by Karl Urban), came to be in the UAC facility in the first place. Strangely, the movie seems to ride on the atmosphere and story ques of DOOM 3, at least in part. this is most likely due to the fact that DOOM 3 is the only game that really had a real story at this point. The previous games dropped you into the action, and you knew from the get-go that you were there to stop everything between you and the exit. There wasn't much to go on, and not much to make a movie out of. But, DOOM 3 didn't have much in the line of characters or story either, so I find what was done serviceable - it's almost laughable that people expected more from a adaption of a game where you walk forward and shoot. Not to say that there is no problems with the story, there is, but I'll be getting to that later. To me, the strong point of DOOM is the effects. The effects of this movie are, for the most part, practical. Yes, aside from a couple instances, you are getting full-on costumes, actual sets (aside from the green screen atrocities we sometimes see these days), and weapons that actually seem to fire actual rounds of some sort - be it blanks or not, they are still working. I was blown away seeing Imps, Hell Knights, and the Possessed being fully realized. It was fantastic and far beyond the required effort, especially in a time where so many movies had CG effects crammed into them awkwardly. And, surprisingly, the CG holds up after all this time. The actual first person scene, whereas the main character is shown from a first person perspective like the game is really well done, far better then I'd ever expected - it's also a great touch for a film based on a game to, you know, actually have such a close element within it. Okay, so now onto those elements I didn't find too well done. For one, the story forgoes the mention of Hell at all. There is a strong 'good and evil' plot that centers around some infection that gives good people superhuman powers or bad people become monstrous demons. I guess in the games there are some mention of a previous race on mars, but why is Hell not mentioned in a movie about DOOM. Why does the UAC even exist? It's the Union Aerospace Corporation, in this movie they seem to be focused on researching ancient ruins and not transporters and resource management. And the demons being created by a infectious moral disease? I don't get why this happened, it almost feels like a cop-out to avoid a religious issue - even though a bible quote is mentioned. Yes, in some small weird way, DOOM manages to mess up the simplest of source material plots. As much as I'd like to defend it, the movie does make this mistake. But, really, we now live in a world where this information is readily available and to some, at the time, it might not have been so obvious - especially since a lot of the information is hidden in menus and manuals rather then in the story itself. I almost feel as if the original games were played and the look of DOOM 3, and general synopsis, was used to form the script for this movie. So, is DOOM that bad? Nah. Did I not mention Dwayne Johnson is a main character in this? No? Well, that is probably because he really doesn't have too much of a impact on the role. Almost anyone with muscle mass and a gruff voice could have played his character, Sarge, and it would have worked. If you are going to watch this movie, I'd do it for the amazing practical effects, cheesy one-liners, and action. My god, when the action gets going it is glorious. -L.BROOKS
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