Movie Review by Nigel A. Messenger
Starring: Karl Urban, The Rock, Rosamund Pike, Raz Adoti, DeObia Oparei
Director: Andrezej Bartkowiak
Almost everyone has heard of the video game Doom. You may not have played it but you’ll know the name. The game is a first person shooter so basically you go around blowing away zombies and monsters and try not to get killed. But how do you translate that to a movie and hold an audience’s attention for 105 minutes?
DOOM the movie is set in a research base on Mars. There’s been an accident, part of the base has been sealed and a crack military team led by Sarge (The Rock) has been called in from Earth to find out what went wrong and why the people in the sealed section can’t be contacted.
Now the story might seem thin but it doesn’t take long to realise that if you’re into action movies you’re in for a real treat. The Rock and co soon find out that the dead are coming back to life and turning very nasty. There’s plenty of thrills as they make their way through dark and sometimes wet passageways and Rosamund Pike is in the lab to add some female glamour to the proceedings.
The Rock gives a very good performance as a tough military squad leader and you would think movie hero… right? Wrong, I’m giving a spoiler away here but things turn pretty nasty for The Rock’s character and he’s a great bad guy! Nice to see that he’s not afraid to be the baddie in a movie.
Also DOOM acknowledges its video game roots as there is an excellent extended sequence where our real hero Reaper (Karl Urban) goes off to save the day (and the planet and hopefully Earth) with a whole monster shooting sequence filmed from a first person shooter perspective and a big gun sticking out from the bottom of the screen, running down corridors with monsters jumping out to fight and killing just like a video game – and it really works!
Now I have to admit I’m a big fan of the RESIDENT EVIL movie franchise so I went into the screening thinking a DOOM movie would simply feel like a rip-off of that and just cashing in on the Doom name but it’s actually very good in its own right.
DOOM the movie is very entertaining and I’m pretty sure that if it makes enough money we will get a sequel – it sets itself up for one anyway. Now, as I haven’t ever played the game I’m going to have to get a copy fast and blast away some monsters!
