PopHorror Let's Get Scared
About 7 years ago I covered one of the original first person shooter video games called Isle of The Dead. In that review, I mentioned that the game faded into obscurity because the legendary game DOOM was released the same year (1993). DOOM the game created a legacy that still stands today. In 1994, DOOM 2 was released and it too was a smash hit. With Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat getting movie adaptations, Hollywood wanted one for DOOM as well. Circumstances prevented it from happening for 10 years. Finally, in 2005….DOOM was released.
Before we get to the movie, we have to talk about DOOM the game first. It was a first person shooter with a killer soundtrack, ghoulish monsters and a hero named “Doom Guy”. Programmed by Adrian and John Carmack and designed by John Romero, Tom Hall and Sandy Petersen, the goal was to guide Doom Guy through literal Hell killing everything in sight. It was revolutionary in not just the video game genre but horror as well. Original scripts for a movie adaptation began as early as 1995 but never got off the ground. One of the big factors in the delay was the Columbine school shooting in April of 1999 that put the kibosh temporarily on featuring games or movies based on shooting everything in sight. Once the heat died down, a fourth DOOM game called DOOM 3 (yes you read that right) was on its way in 2004. FINALLY, Universal Pictures gave director Andrzej Bartkowiak (Romeo Must Die – 2000) the go-ahead to direct a live action DOOM movie.
So what was DOOM about? A crack group of marines called Rapid Response Tactical (or RRTC) is preparing to go on leave when their leader Sarge (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson – Walking Tall 2004) gets a call from the Union Aerospace Corporation that a research facility on Mars has been attacked and Dr. Carmack (nice tribute) has sent for help. Sarge gathers the marines Mac (Yao Chin – Superbob 2015), Portman (Richard Brake – Batman Begins 2005), Duke (Raz Adoti – Second In Command 2006) Destroyer (DeObia Oparei – Alien 3 1992), Goat (Ben Daniels – Rogue One 2016) The Kid (Al Weaver – Macbeth 2018) and Reaper (Karl Urban – Ghost Ship 2002) to head to a secret base in Nevada that holds a portal to Mars. They are to retrieve the computer data the research team had been running on Mars and eliminate any hostiles.
On Mars, they order the portal on Earth closed so nothing goes through and meet Dr. “Pinky” Pinzerowski (Dexter Fletcher – Kick Ass 2010) and Dr. Samantha Grimm (Rosamund Pike – Die Another Day 2002). They’ve found an extra chromosome in ancient skeletons that supposedly gives people superhuman powers. The kicker is Samantha is Reaper’s sister who Duke desperately wants to bang. During the sweep, they find the mutating Dr. Carmack (Robert Russell – The Illusionist 2006) and figure out these monsters didn’t attack the research team, they ARE the research team. Can Sarge and The Grimm Twins (yes they went there) stop the mutation or will all hell break loose? Watch the movie and find out.
The acting in DOOM was hilarious. Richard Brake played the creepy misogynist Porter to perfection while Karl Urban treated the role of Reaper like it was Shakespeare. Dwayne Johnson was still getting his feet wet in Hollywood with only a few movies under his belt, but during a scene where he yells at Portman, you can see “The Rock” coming out. Rosamund Pike’s little scenes with Raz Adoti were cute and watching Robert Russell tearing his own ear off was pretty comical. The best line was “Pinky” looking at Mac and saying “You don’t look like a Mac.” Mac goes “Kazuhiro Komanoske Takashi” and Pinky replies “So…Mac.” Even Mac’s one spoken line was enough to be memorable. Everyone from Kid to the mutated doctors do the best they can. Even John Carmack was quoted to saying it was an action movie and not to expect Oscar worthy performances.
The budget for DOOM was reported to be 65 million and the movie grossed….58 million. Whoops! So why did it bomb? The problem was the movie had nothing to do with the game’s story. The game’s story is one man has to fight an army of monsters, going into literal hell to do it. The movie was just basically Predator meets Aliens where a crack team of soldiers go down one by one until one has to fight the monsters alone. Add in the convoluted story where humans become either Superman or a monster depending if they’re a nice guy or not, DOOM the movie deviated from the game’s plot, which was a big no-no back then.
Both Super Mario Brothers and the first Resident Evil movie had almost no connection to the actual games. Now DOOM did get a few things right, including the eventual mutated Pinky (spoiler alert), the BFG and the one scene where it goes first person. Watching Karl Urban mow down bad guys with a somewhat close remix of At Doom’s Gate was one of the only game oriented scenes in DOOM. Rosamund Pike explains she didn’t know what the game was about when she took the role, if she had, she would have acted differently. Going from James Bond to DOOM is definitely quite a jump.
The special effects in DOOM were pretty cool, especially some of the monsters that could be found in the games. Visually it presented a dark and dreary atmosphere that set the tone perfectly for the carnage that was about to happen. If the movie wasn’t called DOOM and called “Portal To Hell”, it might have gotten better reviews since it wouldn’t have had to deal with pissed off video gamers expecting Doom Guy. Or hell, if the movie was basically Karl Urban or The Rock as Doomguy mowing his way through monsters, that might have worked too.
So what about legacy? The games have plenty of legacy but many feel DOOM the movie was an abortion. Showcasing the BFG for about 30 seconds and a minute of first person view doesn’t make up for the rest of the movie being a Predator or Aliens clone. Just like with the first Resident Evil movie, it wasn’t for the hardcore gamers, it was trying to tell a different story. If you want to shut your brain off and watch marines gun down monsters, this is an hour and forty five minutes worth spending on. If you want a closer adaptation to the game, just go play them.
Maybe someday we’ll get a real Doom Guy movie. Hey Hollywood, *hint hint.*
