Doom

Director: Andrzej Bartkowiak
Starring: Karl Urban, The Rock, Rosamund Pike, Dexter Fletcher, Ben Daniels, Deobia Oparei
Running time: 105 mins
Certificate: 15

It’s 2046 and scientists in a research station on Mars have made the mistake of meddling with genetics and transforming some of their number into a bunch of formidable monsters. With the help of forensic anthropologist, Samantha Grimm (Pike), a group of marines led by The Rock enter the foray to sort out the mess.

Pleasantly, Doom is the type of movie that exceeds expectations, even though that isn’t saying much. Game-to-movie adaptations have invariably got a rotten deal in the conversion process. Well-loved and genre-defining games have been subject to what can only be called blasphemy in the form of Street Fighter, Resident Evil, Super Mario Bros. and Tomb Raider. These films have not only taken liberties with the characters and stories but have for the most part made pretty disgraceful movies in their own right. In view of its predecessors, Doom has got off quite lightly.

The spirit of the game is left intact, with plenty of monsters lurking round a maze of corridors, heavily-armed marines wandering about and the bloodbaths that result when the two meet. As a nod to the game, one sequence towards the end of the movie is filmed in the style of a first-person-shooter, an idea which could either be viewed as a corny gimmick or a technique which actually adds to the tension – perhaps the film’s only original idea. Though proficient in what it tries to do, Doom is really nothing that hasn’t been seen before – marines hunting down creatures in a labyrinthine planetary outpost is hardly a new idea. Unsurprisingly, it hasn’t taken Aliens’ crown in this respect.

Whilst the movie is decent in its own right, albeit in an unoriginal sort of way, fans of the game by which it was inspired might argue as to how far it’s actually an adaptation of it. Yes, there a few of the monsters and characters featured in the game, and yes there’s a chainsaw and renamed BFG in the weaponry department. However, since the game’s plot was based around creatures coming through a portal from hell to Mars rather than scientific experiments gone wrong, it’s undeniable that the screenwriters have enjoyed a large helping of artistic license. Instead of Doom, the under-explained scientific explanation is far more akin to Resident Evil.

Although its acting is almost unexceptionally uninspired (apart from Karl Urban as John Grimm) and its dialogue laughable, Doom is among the best game-to-movie transitions (not saying much, admittedly) and isn’t to be dismissed out of hand. It stays interesting throughout and requires no prior knowledge (in fact, the less you know the more acceptable the storyline). It’s not the complete waste of time that it could have been, though it certainly won’t be as fondly remembered as the game franchise that spawned it.