Doom (2005)
Friday, February 24th, 2006
Directed by: Andrzej Bartkowiak
Cast: The Rock, Karl Urban, Rosamund Pike, Deobia Oparei, Ben Daniels, Razaaq Adoti, Al Weaver, Dexter Fletcher
Runtime: 113 min (director’s cut)
Rating: R
Trailer
It’s the year 2145 and a group of supercharged marines are dispatched to Mars (of all places!) to secure a science research facility from some evil monsters running amok and killing inhabitants. While the plot synopsis sounds suspiciously like Cameron’s Aliens, Doom is based on iD Software’s pioneering first person shooter game of the early 90’s. Having practically invented the first person shooter genre of gaming, Doom sold a record number of games and spawned two sequels, with Doom 3 recently released. More importantly, the game fulfilled the adolescent boy fantasy of running around dimly lit hallways wielding a phallic weapon intent on shooting hordes of bizarre creatures, all to a heavy metal soundtrack. And in keeping with this bloodthirsty tradition, the film translates the action onto the screen much in the same way the game does. Characters wander empty corridors with careful unease as they wait for ghoulish zombie-like creatures to jump out of the dark. That these characters are completely devoid of any personality or charisma means that any teenage fan-boy sitting in the audience can instantly transfer their character traits into any number of hulking badass marines, such as: the leader Sarge (played by The Rock) who gets to strike countless strong-man poses and shout out obscenities while turning into a complete lunatic by the film’s end; there’s the homophobic and vile Portman (Richard Drake) who seems to only exist for comic relief. Do the producers actually believe that characters who babble incessantly on their sexism, homophobia, and racism constitute as comic relief? The film’s main character, John Grimm (Karl Urban) is a brooding anti-hero with a troubled past. You know the type – he’s strong but sensitive, but not such a pansy that he would actually show his feelings, instead, he just gets to yell at his sister Samantha (Rosamund Pike, apparently her only role is to serve as eye candy).
The action that takes place inside the dank hallways is Doom’s saving grace. While predictable and ultimately monotonous, the general atmosphere of dread and decay evokes a good deal of unease and fright. Andrzej Bartkowiak’ direction keeps the attention squarely on the marines which heightens the suspense and confusion of not knowing what might be lurking around the corner. The much-hyped five minute first person sequence near the end of the film is undeniably silly but surprisingly effective at conjuring up the game and its relentless paranoia. It’s a mystery then why the film doesn’t end with this sequence. In the end, it settles on the tried and true method of hand-to-hand combat, which is completely out of place for a film that so fetishizes weapons of combat, especially during the “big fucking gun” sequence. But a film like Doom, with all its cocky bravado, ends up just like its characters: macho on the outside but limp when it’s time to perform.
Richard X
© Cinephile Magazine, 2006
