← Back to Reviews
in
Synopsis:
When an unseen creature tears through the Union Aerospace Corporation’s research facility on Mars, killing everyone it comes across, the Rapid Response Tactical Squad (RRTC) are called in to sort the situation out. In the team though is John Grimm… and his twin Sister Samantha is in the research facility.
On arrival though, the team and Sam realise that the base has been used for more than just a forensics lab and weapons testing facility… and that genetic research has produced something much worse than a few powerful guns.
Review:
Ok… I’ll start off with one phrase… post pub entertainment.
I say entertainment. What I mean is, when you’re a bit drunk and it’s late but there’s nothing on the telly, Doom is the movie to watch.
There’s little to no story or plot exactly apart from “we can’t let these things get off the planet” and a little side story with the Grimm Twins and a family history… but that’s it.
Everything else is simply guys shooting stuff, the occasional jump when the setting goes dark and copious amounts of un-stylised blood and gore.
The film does go extremely dark at times too. There are scenes that reminded me of Blade 2 when they end up in the sewers but in Doom there’s no blue-ish mood lighting… the actors seem to be lighting themselves using flashlights and it gets very disorientating. Not in a good way either as there’s almost no payoff in these scenes. They’re just dark for the sake of it.
The acting is pretty apt for the type of film too. The actors all seem to know they’re in a pile of crap and seem to sort of play along with it, giving only the bare minimum needed for the situation. It works though, which might sound odd, but the actors being not exactly crap, but just bordering it and it allowed me to actually get into the mind set of so-crap-it’s-actually-good.
The big fault I found, is like many Doom fans… the filmmakers have sacrificed “Hell” opening up and unleashing all sorts of baddies, and have made the term “Hell” some sort of metaphor instead.
Bad form guys. If you’re going to make a fantasy sci-fi, use the source correctly.
The film does have some redeeming features though among all the faults.
One is that the character writing is simple, yet they have dimension.
“Portman” for instance (played by Richard Brake, more famous these days as Joe Chill, the guy who killed Bruce Wayne’s parents in Batman Begins and also in Hannibal Rising) has a few layers to him, as too does “Sarge” played by The Rock.
Each character has been given a different “character”, kinda like a throwback to Predator almost where everyone has been given a treatment.
It’s nice to see this little touch in a film that’s so poorly written. The actors involved all seem to fit these personalities too, and that makes me think the casting director had their thinking-cap on while scouring the thousands (probably) of pages of B-Actors they had in front of them.
There does however seem to be a running theme of the actors almost fluffing their lines. Rosamund Pike is the worst of the lot though. She seems to be struggling with an American accent and get almost tongue-tied several times.
Which brings me to the acting.
Karl Urban, as usual is best on show as John “Reaper” Grimm. Urban as always gives 100%, makes it believeable and holds the action with enthusiasm.
Rosamund Pike, as I said above, is pretty out of her depth and is struggling with her lines. She’s also no Scream-Queen. A particular scene with one of our creatures banging against a window and her screaming at it is laugh out loud hilarious and yet also immensely painful to watch. Pike is abysmal in this film.
Dwayne The Rock Johnson is a surprise though. He stifles his lines a couple times like Rosamund but when it comes to the action and having a complete change in character as the film unravels is played brilliantly by The Rock.
Backup comes from Raz Adoti, Richard Brake, Dexter Fletcher, Al Weaver, Deobia Oparei, Ben Daniels and Yao Chin.
Most have little to do except wise-crack every now and then and get chomped. Richard Brake is prett good though as the drug-fuelled pervert “Porter” and Al Weaver as “The Kid” is a memorable role.
One of the most likeable of the background guys is Ben Daniels as Eric “Goat” Fantom. He’s the religious Soldier of the gang and holds the screen exceptionally well even though he has only a handful of lines.
Like the rest of the film, the action and effects are a mixed bag too.
The CGI is awful but the practical effects are top notch.
The CG is worse than something Paul WS Anderson churns out for his Res Evil movies but the practical effects beat most films of modern time. The puppetry and prosthetics are really very good in this film.
There’s a mixture of some pretty exciting chase scenes through dark narrow tunnels and waterlogged basements and the thumping soundtrack adds a lot to what could be generic gunfire and explosions.
The scene at the end in first-person mode is good to see, but wasn’t utilised brilliantly tbh and has way too much CGI.
The other problem is that the film goes into Zombie oriented territory rather than bringing anything new to the table.
Review #225, Movie #296
Doom
Year Of Release
Doom
Year Of Release
2005
Director/s
Director/s
Anderzej Bartkowiak
Producer/s
Producer/s
Lorenzo di Boneventura, Laura Holstein, John D. Schofield, Jeremy Steckler
Writer/s
Writer/s
David Callaham, Wesley Strick, ID Software
Cast
Cast
Karl Urban, Rosamund Pike, Raz Adoti, Richard Brake, Dexter Fletcher, Al Weaver, Deobia Oparei, Ben Daniels, Yao Chin and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
Notes And Trivia
Notes And Trivia
Along with Brian Steel as one of the creatures in the film, (who is famous for playing Arnold Schwarzenegger’s body double in Terminator Salvation), this film has Doug Jones who played the infamous Pale Man and Faun in Pan’s Labyrinth.
The movie was panned by movie goers and critics alike for a number of things, but mainly for having very little to do with the Videogame it’s based on.
Garnering only 19% on RT, complaints ranged from “like a kid who comes over to your house and plays all your games without letting you play” to “awful performances” and even “the catering truck was probably not even up to snuff”.
Doom was also a Box Office failure, losing $5m.
---
---
When an unseen creature tears through the Union Aerospace Corporation’s research facility on Mars, killing everyone it comes across, the Rapid Response Tactical Squad (RRTC) are called in to sort the situation out. In the team though is John Grimm… and his twin Sister Samantha is in the research facility.
On arrival though, the team and Sam realise that the base has been used for more than just a forensics lab and weapons testing facility… and that genetic research has produced something much worse than a few powerful guns.
Review:
Ok… I’ll start off with one phrase… post pub entertainment.
I say entertainment. What I mean is, when you’re a bit drunk and it’s late but there’s nothing on the telly, Doom is the movie to watch.
There’s little to no story or plot exactly apart from “we can’t let these things get off the planet” and a little side story with the Grimm Twins and a family history… but that’s it.
Everything else is simply guys shooting stuff, the occasional jump when the setting goes dark and copious amounts of un-stylised blood and gore.
The film does go extremely dark at times too. There are scenes that reminded me of Blade 2 when they end up in the sewers but in Doom there’s no blue-ish mood lighting… the actors seem to be lighting themselves using flashlights and it gets very disorientating. Not in a good way either as there’s almost no payoff in these scenes. They’re just dark for the sake of it.
The acting is pretty apt for the type of film too. The actors all seem to know they’re in a pile of crap and seem to sort of play along with it, giving only the bare minimum needed for the situation. It works though, which might sound odd, but the actors being not exactly crap, but just bordering it and it allowed me to actually get into the mind set of so-crap-it’s-actually-good.
The big fault I found, is like many Doom fans… the filmmakers have sacrificed “Hell” opening up and unleashing all sorts of baddies, and have made the term “Hell” some sort of metaphor instead.
Bad form guys. If you’re going to make a fantasy sci-fi, use the source correctly.
The film does have some redeeming features though among all the faults.
One is that the character writing is simple, yet they have dimension.
“Portman” for instance (played by Richard Brake, more famous these days as Joe Chill, the guy who killed Bruce Wayne’s parents in Batman Begins and also in Hannibal Rising) has a few layers to him, as too does “Sarge” played by The Rock.
Each character has been given a different “character”, kinda like a throwback to Predator almost where everyone has been given a treatment.
It’s nice to see this little touch in a film that’s so poorly written. The actors involved all seem to fit these personalities too, and that makes me think the casting director had their thinking-cap on while scouring the thousands (probably) of pages of B-Actors they had in front of them.
There does however seem to be a running theme of the actors almost fluffing their lines. Rosamund Pike is the worst of the lot though. She seems to be struggling with an American accent and get almost tongue-tied several times.
Which brings me to the acting.
Karl Urban, as usual is best on show as John “Reaper” Grimm. Urban as always gives 100%, makes it believeable and holds the action with enthusiasm.
Rosamund Pike, as I said above, is pretty out of her depth and is struggling with her lines. She’s also no Scream-Queen. A particular scene with one of our creatures banging against a window and her screaming at it is laugh out loud hilarious and yet also immensely painful to watch. Pike is abysmal in this film.
Dwayne The Rock Johnson is a surprise though. He stifles his lines a couple times like Rosamund but when it comes to the action and having a complete change in character as the film unravels is played brilliantly by The Rock.
Backup comes from Raz Adoti, Richard Brake, Dexter Fletcher, Al Weaver, Deobia Oparei, Ben Daniels and Yao Chin.
Most have little to do except wise-crack every now and then and get chomped. Richard Brake is prett good though as the drug-fuelled pervert “Porter” and Al Weaver as “The Kid” is a memorable role.
One of the most likeable of the background guys is Ben Daniels as Eric “Goat” Fantom. He’s the religious Soldier of the gang and holds the screen exceptionally well even though he has only a handful of lines.
Like the rest of the film, the action and effects are a mixed bag too.
The CGI is awful but the practical effects are top notch.
The CG is worse than something Paul WS Anderson churns out for his Res Evil movies but the practical effects beat most films of modern time. The puppetry and prosthetics are really very good in this film.
There’s a mixture of some pretty exciting chase scenes through dark narrow tunnels and waterlogged basements and the thumping soundtrack adds a lot to what could be generic gunfire and explosions.
The scene at the end in first-person mode is good to see, but wasn’t utilised brilliantly tbh and has way too much CGI.
The other problem is that the film goes into Zombie oriented territory rather than bringing anything new to the table.
---
All in all, so-bad-it’s-good… but also so-bad-it’s-just-bad.
Half-decent disparate characters, some decent acting, and decent action/practical effects… the rest is pretty poor and will leave a bitter taste in the mouths of the Videogame Fans.
Anyone else, watch it after a few beers and there’s nothing on TV… just make sure you’ve got a few drunken friends round as well. Then it may just, only just, be a blast.
My Rating: 43%
