Loosely based on the videogame shoot-em-up of the same name, “Doom” sees a group of gung ho marines sent on a blood-splattered rescue mission to Mars.
Led by tough talking Sarge (The Rock), and packing more weapons than an 80s Schwarzenegger flick, the lads are dispatched to a remote scientific research station where all communications have failed and the colony appears deserted.
Before you can say “hang on a sec, isn’t that the plot for Aliens?” all hell breaks loose as a gang of genetically mutated beasts start leaping out on the lads from various ingenious hiding places.
Can the Sarge get his men - and token hot doctor (Pike) - off the planet before the beasties get ‘em? Don’t bet on it.
They say:
Total Film: "Save for a few unintentionally amusing lines and a brief but admittedly inspired set-piece, Doom fires a big, noisy blank.”
Guardian: "A charmless and brainless horror movie about alien zombies on Mars that leaves a very nasty taste in the mouth.”
Empire: "At this rate, major motion pictures based on Donkey Kong, Pac-Man and Minesweeper must be on the point of getting Hollywood greenlights.”
We say:
After disasters like “Resident Evil” and “Tomb Raider” (wasn't that bad - Ed) this latest computer game to big screen translation was, well, doomed from the start.
Even borrowing from / copying the set-up from “Aliens” doesn’t help much as director Andrzej Bartkowiak (Romeo Must Die) fails to elicit any tension or shocks from the labyrinthine sewer, pipe, and passageway systems that were used to such chilling effect in James Cameron’s 1986 classic.
There are a couple of nice touches such as the first-person-shooter sequence and Sarge’s BFG – “Big Fuckin’ Gun”.
But terrible dialogue like "Dr Carmack's condition is irreversible because Dr Carmack's condition is that he's dead!", lots of biblical mumbo jumbo about Noah’s ark and an unusually awful performance from the Rock mean it’s game over way before the closing credits.
CAST
The Rock, Karl Urban, Rosamund Pike,
Dexter Fletcher, Ben Daniels, Al Weaver
DIRECTOR
Andrzej Bartkowiak
TIME
100 mins
POSTED...
Sat 8 Apr 2006 at 12:51pm
