Doom (Extended Edition) [DVD] [2005] [2006]

Product Description

All-action sci-fi adaptation of the popular first-person shooter computer game, starring The Rock and Karl Urban. On the planet Mars, a team of scientists have set up an experimental research facility that suddenly ceases communication with no warning. A Rapid Response Tactical Squad, led by Sarge (The Rock) and Grimm (Urban), are dispatched to investigate, and make the shocking discovery that the scientists have opened a dimensional gateway to Hell itself. Against all the odds, the squad have to fight their way through the base to shut off the portal, and then kill every horrific escaped demon creature before the hordes of Hell can reach Earth.

From Amazon.co.uk

Grab your BFG and get ready to kick some Martian-demon butt in Doom, another entry in the increasingly crowded videogame-to-movie genre. The Rock plays Sarge, the commander of a squad of Marines sent to investigate a disturbance at a scientific research facility on Mars. Among the squad is John Grimm (Karl Urban, who played Eomer in The Lord of the Rings), who turns out to have had a previous relationship with Samantha (Rosamund Pike, Die Another Day), the scientist who's accompanying the Marines in order to retrieve some vital data from the facility.

Based on id Software's legendary first-person shooter, Doom tries its best to look like a game, with dark, angled corridors, ferocious creatures appearing out of nowhere, and a variety of lethal weapons that will, like the aforementioned BFG, warm the cockles of a gamer's heart. There's also one memorable sequence that actually turns the movie into a first-person shooter; the good news is that in the context of the whole film, it's not quite as goofy as it might have been.

And that's not a bad frame of reference for the film in general. Considering the game-to-movie field includes such duds as Wing Commander, if you go into Doom with low expectations, you'll probably find it a surprisingly respectable horror/sci-fi thriller in the Resident Evil vein (including its somewhat obligatory subplot of corporate wrongdoing). Also in its favor is that it's unabashedly R-rated, for the extreme gore that is a trademark of the game. After all, the purpose of the movie is to pack scares and thrills into a setting that gamers will quickly recognize. In that sense, it qualifies as a success. --David Horiuchi