Hardcore Doom fans have been waiting for the movie for quite some time now. Doom, the movie, finally took shape in 2004 when Andrzej Bartkowiak, Karl Urban, and most notably, the Rock were “attached” to the project.
Andrzej Bartkowiak is a good cinematographer (Dante’s Peak, Lethal Weapon 4), who turned into a not-so-good director (Cradle 2 the Grave, Romeo Must Die). He is probably the right man for this job. He captures the creepy atmosphere of Doom 3, the latest installment in the game series.
The problem with a Doom movie, however, doesn’t have to do with the lighting or the lack of character (even face) of the protagonist. When the original Doom came out (Christmas 1993), the game revolutionized the FPS genre. To anyone who actually played the game (and I did that for hours on end), it’s easy to tell what this revolution was all about.
The game introduced two concepts that have become an indelible part of the game culture:
Deathmatch (or DM) - the objective of a deathmatch is to frag as many players in the game as possible while keeping yourself from being fragged.
Frag (verb and noun) - a kill during a deathmatch. Although “frag” existed as a term during the Vietnam war, legendary game programmer John Romero is credited with coining both terms.
Back to the movie… Surprise, surprise, there’s no Deathmatch mode and certainly no frags. There isn’t an opposing faction but a bunch of imbecile monsters begging for some hack-and-slash. It’s a single-player storyline with plenty of shooting to conceal the fact this is indeed a corridor crawl of the worst type. As if Doom 3 was not boring and repetitive enough, we are now treated to its “cinematic” version.
The movie isn’t all bad though. It still takes place at a Martian base and the monsters are at least as impressive (graphically) as those in Doom 3 (wait till Diablo 3 comes out on playstation 3!). Hardcore fans should be able to relate to some of the scenes: monsters coming out of the dark, your 250 ammo gone in 5 seconds, your teammates leaving it all to you, etc. The movie even features a 5 minute POV sequence that ties the movie to the game in terms of action and perspective. (On the negative side, Doom takes creative license in areas that are best left unspoiled. The monsters are no longer demons from Hell but genetic mutations.)
Compared to … Any game-to-movie conversion that Uwe Boll did, this is nothing short of OSCAR material. The original Resident Evil is the only one that comes close in terms of production values.
Here’s my recommendation: if you’re a hardcore Doom fan, rent the movie when it comes out on DVD. You could use it as a kind of intro/outro to Doom 3. That is, if you still haven’t finished the single player campaign. Just like Doom 3, this movie has ZERO replayability. Now, go play Diablo 3 or Starcraf 2.
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