Doom

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

OK, where must I begin. I might as well point out the bad things first in respect to the game. Now, what the hell was with the whole 24th chromosome thing? Makes sense to me, yes. However, what the hell happened to, well, HELL? These monsters in the movie were respectable enough to relate to the imps and hell knights in the game, but WHERE THE HELL ARE THE FIRE AND PLAMSA BALLS?! Where are the flying lost souls? Where are the CACODEMONS? where's the F**kin demon lord and spider demon for crying out loud. Maybe I'm being a little vain and asking for too much, but the monsters in the game were different breeds, and all came from hell, not mutated. The whole plot was actually somewhat too similar to Resident Evil. It p*s*e* me off. They completely abandoned all that the game was based on plot wise.

Now, as for the characters, I'm glad that they made it a team effort in this, and the characters were funny at times, but they seemed so underdone, except for of course, Reaper and Sarge, even Rosamund Pike couldn't add to anything in the film. I know I'm being picky, but blood and guts game? One man fighting to stop hell (or team effort)? Hello?

The good things were that they stayed on Mars, they had the BFG in it, but it was so underused. I think the highlight of it was the first person thing, which I feel quite gypped on because of the short amount of time that we see it. I feel like they just put it in there for the game fans so they'd have their glory, and I am a die hard doom fan, but i feel somewhat insulted by it. They have had plenty of technology available to them to make this so much better, but they didn't use what they could've had available to them. Maybe if ID worked with them on it, it wouldn't have been such a disappointment, but this was just insulting to us gamers once again. however, a SMALL improvement when it comes to other VG movies. The action was however enjoyable, and the fight at the end made it fun, but I almost felt like Rock had to do it to show off that he still has his smack-down glory. Oh well, lets see if they don't butcher Halo. (God Forbid)

5/10

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.

OK, we are all hearing how Doom the movie is a complete sellout etc, but still this is an enjoyable movie. The Rock as Sarge is absolutely perfect! i just couldn't imagine Karl Urban doing a better job then The Rock when it comes to Sarge. Although many have branded this film "Resident Evil in Space" and yeah it is but that doesn't subtract from the film at all. The 1st person scene was especially pulled off well and will give you some giggles (c'mon who didn't laugh?).The Score is absolutely awesome and sets the atmosphere perfectly! too me this film had an old school 80's horror feel to it which i felt made it that more enjoyable (we got lots of uncensored over the top gore which now we don't get enough of). Overall don't judge this movie till you see it because it is a lot better then people rate it unless your looking to find something thats a 100% identical too its source material (Doom 3) then i'd advise you to not watch this film because some of it has been completely rewritten from its original context hence no hell. Overall a lot better then what i was expecting too see

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.