Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson Stars in Doom 2005
Live Action Film Adaptation of the Game Franchise with the Same Name
Sep 13, 2009
Scientists on Mars have discovered a miracle drug that holds the key to creating terrifying monsters or a race of super humans. One of their experiments has escaped, and now eight marines are sent to Mars to assess the situation and if necessary, destroy any hostile life form before it is able to return to Earth.
Doom's Plot and Characters
Set in 2046, the Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC)-owned Olduvai Research Facility has been attacked by something vicious and inhuman. Scientist Carmack (Robert Russell) is able to send a distress call to Earth. Staff Sergeant Thomas "Sarge" Kelley (Dwayne Johnson) and his squad of marines are ordered to go to Mars through a device called the Ark to find any survivors and prevent anything dangerous making it to Earth.
The team comprises seven other members (aside from Sarge). The squad is made up of Sergeant John "Reaper" Grimm (Karl Urban), Sergeant Gregory "Duke" Schoefield (Raz Adoti), Sergeant Gannon "Destroyer" Roark (Deobia Oparei), Private First Class Katsuhiko Kumanosuke "Mac" Takahashi (Yao Chin), Private Mark "The Kid" Dantalian (Al Weaver), Corporal Dean Portman (Richard Brake) and Corporal Eric "Goat" Fantom (Ben Daniels).
The team arrives on Mars and immediately meets up with Dr. Samantha Grimm (Rosamund Pike) who is also Reaper’s twin sister. The marines move through the facility and are attacked by an unknown creature that is very strong and is more than capable of taking the hardened soldiers apart.
The film descends into chaos as the team fight to prevent the growing numbers of creatures from making it through the Ark and escaping to the Earth facility.
One of the Better Adaptations
Resident Evil was one of the first films to receive the green light to be made into a live action film and whilst it received mixed responses it set the bar by which other adaptations would be judged. Luckily Resident Evil did not set the bar very high. Doom is a film that non-fans of the game will enjoy far more than those familiar with the game franchise. People who haven’t played the games can get a kick out of watching hardened marines cracking up as they are picked off by the mutated monsters infecting the Mars facility.
Unlike some of the other adaptations, Doom is aided by the fact that it makes several obvious links to the games.
One such link is the inclusion of a gun referred to as BFG, in the film it is called the Big Force Gun (and is based on the BFG 9000 from the games) but Sarge refers to the weapon as “Big F***ing Gun” which was the term that many fans of the game dubbed the gun.
The other link is more obvious and involves an entire sequence shot from a first person perspective with the gun in the centre of the screen. It is one of the film’s highlights and adds a tongue-in-cheek edge, essentially it seems to be an admission by the director that the film is based on a game and is therefore not meant to be taken seriously.
The cast is made up of some famous faces. Johnson made Doom in 2005 along with the film Be Cool in which he starred alongside John Travolta and Uma Thurman. Karl Urban has starred in numerous films including The Bourn Supremacy and more recently was cast as Dr McCoy in Star Trek. Former Bond-girl Rosemund Pike is also present and would later co-star in Fracture alongside Antony Hopkins.
Despite the good cast Doom is not a great film, the marines being picked off by a dangerous creature has been done many times before (with Predator being one of the best versions). It will most likely appeal to people who are not familiar with the game because they can just sit back and watch a decent sci-fi horror. Game fans will probably be outraged by the fact that the film alters many of the game’s fundamental themes and does not involve just killing as many enemies as possible.
3/5
Doom is decent enough, and is one of the better game to film adaptations.
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