That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, “Doom” is actually a decent video game movie. Now, for those of you who are unfamiliar to the world of “Doom,” it began as an unimaginably successful computer game in 1993. The plot is simple: kill things to find keys, find keys to open doors, open doors to kill more things. All right, so it is slightly more complex than that.
You play a U.S. Marine who is the sole survivor of a horrifying accident. During a routine teleport to Mars, an interdemensional portal to hell is accidentally opened up, and demons swarm the Martian space station. After killing the rest of your platoon, they begin to search for a way to get to Earth. You refuse to let that happen.
The movie was developed after the renewed interest generated in last year’s hit game “Doom 3.” This is where much of the movie’s plot stems from, as well. In the movie, a team of Marines, including The Rock, are dispatched to a Martian research station when all contact is lost with the scientists working there.
Their mission is simple: retrieve all research material and evacuate the scientists. But, what was supposed to be a walk-in-the-park rescue operation quickly becomes more complicated as more and more bodies pile up and the research found grows more and more disturbing. Worst of all, whoever, or whatever, killed these people is still somewhere in the station, and now it’s hunting the researchers. The race is on to get to the bottom of what happened before the Marines meet a similar and terrifying fate.
The movie is a testament to what good lighting, cinematography and art direction can do for an otherwise sub-par movie; you will take deep breaths as the characters must search dark rooms with only flashlights, you will be on the edge of your seat when a marine enters a pitch-black corridor, and you will jump when – well, you get the picture. The movie follows in the growing action and horror tradition of films like “Alien,” “Dawn of the Dead” or fellow video game movie “Resident Evil.”
If you’re the kind of person who likes to be scared by something, watch that something mangle a human being and then see someone blow it up, by all means, “Doom” is for you. If you’re more of a Reese Witherspoon kind of person or are looking for a movie with a bit more substance than the walking dead, still referring to Reese Witherspoon here, then this is one film you’ll definitely want to stay clear of. No matter what your feelings towards “Doom,” though, it will be interesting to see how the movie does, as it is the first in a long line of upcoming video game adaptations into movies. Others include “Splinter Cell,” “Spy Hunter,” also starring The Rock, “Mortal Kombat 3” and “Halo” – which will be produced by Peter Jackson, who directed “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy and the upcoming “King Kong.”
