Doom

And I don't mean that in a bad way. If you wanna watch Aliens but you last watched it a bit too recently, then watch Doom. Firstly, it will satisfy your xeno-bloodlust. Secondly, the next time you wanna watch Aliens, you will REALLY wanna watch Aliens. And that's a good thing right? Damn right!

As a fan of both Ultraviolet and the Resident Evil Series, this film falls nicely in between. While a bit more plot and less polish than Ultraviolet, Doom entertains but fails to reach the balance of action/plot as found in Resident Evil. Where it does succeed is when it tries to entertain and reference the game (many here) in a tongue-in-cheek fashion, rather than try and elevate the plot to a social commentary.

Sarge (The Rock) is the leader of a Marines unit which is sent to research facility on Mars to investigate missing scientists. They soon realize that the research facility is doing more than an archaeological dig, and that the scientists aren't missing - they're transformed.

The Rock does a fine job of an alpha-male, cocky Marine with swagger. The supporting cast comes off as a "wish we could've gotten Actor A but instead got B". The sfx are good, especially the much anticipated FPS style. Unfortunately, this only lasts a few minutes of the film.

Whether they make a sequel or not, Doom does entertain, and it leaves the ending open for more fun and doom.

Would I call Doom a good movie? Not really. Do I still enjoy it? Yes!

For me the interaction between the actors is working pretty well and the movie delivers something resembling the game Doom in terms of scenario. We have some of the monsters that can be found in the game even though they're not really demons but something else.

In addition the action scenes are pretty entertaining and especially the first person shooter style scene is very well done.

Does the movie still have problems? Definitely. The characters themselves are rather stupid in their behavior and overall pretty flat. The story writing as well is not great.

Still watching Karl Urban and The Rock going at each other is pretty fun.

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

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.