Years ago, news spread around the Internet with the headline "ID software to sell the movie rights for Doom" and many were in disbelief. How was Hollywood going to recreate the feeling of actually playing the game? Remember the Doom comic book that circulated online, and how awful it was? It could have been the worst comic book I'd ever seen. The movie seemed like it would share the same fate as the comic book. No one could figure out how Doom could be transformed into a non-interactive experience and succeed.
Time had passed and people had forgotten all about the film until there was some buzz about a movie staring The Rock. Many didn't pay much attention until the word "Doom" was dropped. All of a sudden, they went from uninterested to intrigued. Those Hollywood bastards were actually going to make a run of it. It was if a bomb was aimed at the pocket books of die-hard gamers; the same gamers who fell victim to Alone in the Dark. Rumors circulated that the movie wasn't going to take place on Mars and that the actual Doom story line was going to be ditched.
Don't be too alarmed, the movie does follow what little story line there was. It actually improves upon it.
With recent movies like Resident Evil and X-Men turning out to be really well done, entertaining films, Hollywood proved they could actual take much loved childhood memories and turn them into something great. How were they going to do that with a first person shooter? Maybe they could with Half-Life or Halo, but Doom? Doom was from the days where you just wanted to get a lone solder in the middle of mayhem and have him come out on top. Find the key, advance the level, GO GO GO... not much dialog. Not much for a movie.
Needless to say, everyone in the theater seemed to walk in expecting to see the worst movie ever. They were in for a pleasant surprise. This is far from the worst, it's nowhere close to being the best, but the important thing is they did a decent job.
The acting in this movie was very good. For what little they had to work with, they made the characters well-defined. Karl Urban plays the actual Doom guy, and he looks the part. He was the perfect choice to play the role. The Rock plays the Sarge, the leader of the Marine force and he's his typical badass character. The scientists are named after the game creators and as for the monsters, they are unfortunately few and far between. Instead of a huge army from hell, we get one creature stumbling around the screen every once and a while.
Despite the lack of monsters, the movie holds your attention. There was not a lot of hiding in the dark or gunfire. There was action, but it was in little short spurts. The entire movie builds up to the ending sequence, where you actually see the fight scene in a, you guessed it, first person view. Thankfully, this wasn't over used, and it only lasts a few minutes.
The movie is rated R, but besides the violence, there really isn't reason for this film to be rated that high. It felt like the movie makers didn't want to go to over the top because they wanted to make sure that younger viewers would be able to see the film as well. This may or may not have been a good movie, but it is a video game movie, and 13 and 14-year-olds are going to want to see it. Regardless, the audience seemed to like it. There was more then enough hooting and hollering to go around, especially when they brought out the "Bio Force Gun."
The crowd was filled with gamers and girlfriends forced to accompany them. So it might have just been the showing I was at where the crowd decided to actively participate, but I'd like to imagine everyone had the same experience. For a gamer, this is a movie to be thankful for. Not because it's good, but because they didn't do it poorly. While one shouldn't rush out to the theater to see it, it is something to kick back and watch on a rainy afternoon.
Now the only question left is, when do they make Doom 2?
"Doom" opens October 21, 2005 and is not rated. Action. Directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak. Written by Dave Callaham, Wesley Strick. Starring Dwayne Johnson, Karl Urban, Rosamund Pike.
