Doom (DVD, 2006, Widescreen Extended Edition)

This movie is based in the future and a portal has been discovered leading from Earth to Mars. The government has set up a research base on Mars supposedly to examine Martian relics and their lost civilization. Unfortunately the scientists are conducting genetic experiments and surprise surprise, something goes wrong. A group of marines are soon sent to the base to discover what happened to the scientists. Sarge, played by the Rock, leads the unit and they soon are shooting everything from zombie scientists to all manner of ugly beasties.

There are lots of problems with this movie. First, and there's no real way to get around this, the acting is terrible. The only exception to this, and I mean the only exception, is Karl Urban (Lord of the Rings). Everyone else who acted in this movie looked like they couldn't wait to go home. To go along with the bad acting, the plot is awful. It's an old and overused theme about saving the dumb scientists or civilians from evil critters. James Cameron's "Aliens" starring Sigourney Weaver was probably the best done of these types of movies. Doom, however, is nowhere near that league. The titles of the characters are also a bit cheesy (Goat, Reaper, Sarge, Kid, etc). I kept waiting for Maverick and Goose to pop out of a dark corridor. Finally, the film is really dark. I don't mean depressing, I mean it's poorly lit. Its probably a safe assumption that's its done to hide the sets or monsters but the audience needs to see something. The score, music, soundtrack, etc, are also horrendous.

With all of that being said the movie does stay true to its video game origins and Doom is one of the most popular video games of all time. This movie also has a dark humor about it and you actually laugh at some of the gory scenes and corny one liners like "If it breathes - kill it!" Also, Critics didn't seem to like it but near the end of the movie it switches to a first person shooter view as Reaper (Urban) fights his way through the beasties. Fans of the game, and I'm one, will enjoy seeing some of the old bad guys getting chopped up with the classic Doom chain saw.

Doom set out to be a grisly shoot-em-up video game take off and it succeeded. Don't expect brilliant acting and an academy award nominated plot because its not here. Doom is just campy, gory, and sometimes really stupid fun but in the end it's actually entertaining.

Doom is the best videogame-to-movie adaptation ever made, but that's not saying much. Loosely based on ID software's genre-defining shoot-em-up (which itself owes a heavy debt to The Evil Dead) the film follows a troop of factory-finished badass marines on a trip to Mars, where angry monsters are playing skiprope with the intestines of a luckless scientific research team. The marines have names like Sarge, Reaper, Destroyer and Bite Off My Head You Alien Scum.

Director Andrzej Bartkowiak shows commendable restraint in keeping the monsters offscreen long enough to give us a passing acquaintance with his musclebound gang of sterotypes. There's even a girl scientist, played by Rosamund Pike, who gets the really cherishable stupid lines ("I'm a forensic anthropologist - I go where the work is," she tells Karl Urban's brooding hero). Character development thus dealt with, the movie turns into a meat grinder as the soldiers meet their blood-soaked doom at the hands of mutated genetic beasties. The original Doom's spooky occult trappings have been dispensed with; science is the bad guy here. Well, science and The Rock, manfully controlling his eyebrows in a rare villainous role.

"INVENTIVE SUSPENSE"

Towards the end of the film, the camera assumes the classic first person viewpoint of the game, in an extended sequence that's both a nod to fans and a genuinely inventive suspense device. There's nothing to approach this level of panache in the rest of the film, which is essentially a second rate Aliens knock-off. Still, it's a guilty pleasure.

I read the finicky reviews and was not expecting anything decent but it wasn't so bad!
Yeah at times I was thinking "why did these people film this? Did they need money?" because it is based on a game and has its own world, it does not follow what we on Earth would call a story taken from life.

The special effects were rough at times and made me think that whoever did Pac Man was still doing his work on this movie, but since it's based on a game I took it with a grain of salt. The creatures were pretty wild and I like "alien chase on starship" whether under water, in outer space or on a Moon type of a movie.

I liked how certain characters, without spoiling anything, changed sides and there were a few nice plot twists. Karl Urban and surprisingly the dude known as The Rock were pretty good in this one.

Fun movie to see, but it's not deep soulful or Oscar nominee material.
Pretty much eye candy, but overall better than I expected.

If they based it off Doom 64 it could have been an awesome horror movie but they decided to base it off Doom 3. It feels like a complete rip off of the Alien movies... and even Resident Evil too... Although there were some awesome effects I just feel they could have made this thing very satanic and creepy by basing it off Doom 64. Think about it, what sounds more interesting?

Doom 64 Concept: Minions of Hell trying to take over the Earth...
Doom 3 Movie Concept: Government experiment gone wrong...

The creatures in the movie are... laughable. I want hardcore demons not Resident Evil zombies and concept art based off RE... that's why I think this is a pretty bad movie.

I did enjoy how they made it look like a FPS near the end but I feel it had a weak story line and the creatures were just... creatures, I myself wanted to see some satanic wrath of hell kind of stuff such as minions and flaming skulls from hell.

Overall this movie is feels too much like Resident Evil creature wise. I'd say it's good for a viewing or too and that's it. Better off watching Resident Evil or Aliens then this...

Ok the rock from wrestling fame is in the starring role. Karl Urban is also a supporting actor who also is awesome. The plot line is decent. The actors and acting is extremely well paced. The special effects are unreal. This is really a great movie to watch on a big screen set. The movie has twists and turns all of the time which keeps one on the edge of their seat. Saw the movie then bought the DVD. This movie is a keeper. Definitely worth the watch.