not my blog

All I can say is “Thank God it wasn’t as bad as it could have been”. Truthfully, I didn’t feel ripped off, but was it worth waiting 10 years for? Not even close. Doom as a movie was decidedly nothing like what I had hoped it would have been. This is decidely matinee type material, so spend your $5 and get some enjoyment out of a rainy Saturday afternoon or something.

This movie was pretty straightforward Generic. And in every sense of the word. Nothing stood out, nothing made you go cool! Nothing was genuinely scary. Being a long time fan of the Doom games (hell I helped run Doomworld for a couple years), I could spend hours ripping apart this movie and how it was not Doom. Those things I won’t even get into, I’ll just leave it as they took the name and went from there.

I really can’t say anything was outright horrid, just there were lots of things that had no polish or even any real reason to be in the movie. Too many characters, all of which are quite generic, just leads to a muddled feal when trying to cope with all the violence that ensues in this movie. All the comparisons to Aliens are about as close as you will get. Think of Aliens with much less depth to it. There is nothing to care about in this movie. Hell, the “demons” as they are referred to several times and “Hell” (Mars base Olduvai) aren’t either at all, which at least for me takes away from the whole Doom experience. The whole idea that humans came from advanced beings from Mars just seems stupid too me, and that these super advanced beings died from creating a 24th chromosone that makes people superhuman/demons. How campy can you make the idea behind the movie?

The monsters, well, they were monsters. Didn’t look too bad, even the full CG “Pinkie”. They were not Aliens quality creatures, but I would consider them about an A-. Maybe it was just the fact that I have 10 years of thinking of what the creatures would look and act like and this just wasn’t what I had expected. Sure the “Imps” were strong and fast, but they didn’t show them being particularlly agile. Not to mention, something really needed to throw a fireball… how can you have Doom and not throw a Fireball?

On the good news side:

• The BFG is called by its rightful name during the course of the movie. Yes, the official name is Bio-Force Gun, but they slip it in there… in a believable-ish way. But um… BFG = Green… not Blue. =(
• Clint Mansell does a good job with the score, probably the best part of the whole movie. But what else can you expect from a guy with a record like his?
• The set was decent, nothing spectacular or incredibly creepy, but still, fit the rest of the movie well. Could have been better than it was though.
• The fight with the “Pinkie” demon was possibly the most memorable part of the movie. Enjoyed that tremendously.

Now for those of you who must know, the FPS sequence… not bad. Not the most original idea ever (I’ll find my tape from 10th grade where I did probably the first ever Doom Camera film sequence ever), but it is effective. Make some good use of some mirrors to make it not feel too overdone. Although I did have a bit of an issue with there not being enough sway, eye movement. The camera was too static during this portion, making it very unrealistic. For those that complain it was too long, I would have to disagree and say it was a very reasonable length and did well to homage the original.

I found it humorous with all the id references in the movie. Dr. Carmack and Dr. Willits. Just had to chuckle at this. I’m not going to preach on for fear of stabbing out my own eyes, but Doom was OK and would be worth the price of a matinee for any long time FPS fan or anyone who likes a decent action movie. Just my two cents on the matter…

In closing I do have two things to bring up. The first being, why would you ever bring a 10 year old child to see a Rated R movie? This is just irresponsible parenting if you ask me. I would never take either of my children to see a movie like this at that young of an age. Those people should have been ashamed of themselves. The second: How is it that a really great film like Serenity does so poorly, yet a generic lowest common denominator movie like Doom has a sold-out showing at Regal? I mean Serenity had everything that Doom didn’t, yet it could only muster 3 weeks in the theatres with a rather pathetic showing. Just goes to show you what a sorry country we have become. It’s late now, and I work tomorrow, so just go see the movie… at least if that is what you want to do. Don’t let me sway your decision either way.