Doom
Doom
Cast: see below
The good: The Rock, Karl Urban and the hot Rosamund Pike
The bad: don’t get me started
Based on the popular videogame of the same name, Doom is about a group of marines who are sent to a scientific facility in Mars after a distress signal is alerted. The videogames stick to mindless action extravaganza; the movie…well…it TRIES not to.
The marines are led by a certain Sarge (The Rock). His second-in-command, Reaper (Karl Urban), however, is the true protagonist. And since the marketing for the film suggests otherwise, there is a lingering scent of the unfathomable. Anyway, the marines are sent to the facility to search, rescue, retrieve, and destroy – the standard gamut of any self-respecting marine force. Some will die; others won’t – the standard gamut of any self-respecting suspense/action/sci-fi flick. Ironically, the words “standard” and “self-respect” shouldn’t be put in the same sentence as that of the film’s title as it doesn’t meet the former and doesn’t command the latter.
The marines meet with Dr. Sandra Grimm (Rosamund Pike), who is the sister of Reaper (get it? Grimm and Reaper). The film tries to inject some sense of character to the two through a backstory involving the death of their parents, their ten years of no contact, and what have you. But just like the thrown-in-for-good-measure love subplot of The Great Raid (involving Joseph Fiennes and Connie Nielsen), the attempt at characterization is noteworthy but lacking in real depth to be really effective.
Dr, Grimm explains that they have discovered humanoids in Mars who have 24 pairs of chromosomes. Apparently, we only have 23 and this extra pair infuses super-human characteristics to the recipient. However, as they later discover, the 24th chromosome may or may not trigger a genetic mutation to a person, depending on his personality. This chromosome will be quite useful in today’s times as we may find out if Michael Jackson is really a pedophile or not. Jackson references aside, this admittedly cool sci-fi concept is what caused the monsters that you’ll barely see. You’ll barely see them because the film is so friggin’ dark that even the supposedly “best of the best” marines have trouble hitting them. The question is: Is this an intended atmospheric visual style, or just plain money not wanting to be spent? Another question is: If we are the descendants of the humanoids from Mars (they arrived in Earth through a portal they built which is now the source of travel from here to there), how come we only have 23 pairs of chromosomes and not 24?
The bigger question though is what The Rock, Karl Urban, and the gorgeous Rosamund Pike (from Die Another Day) is doing in a sorry excuse for a film like this. Apart from The Rock, it’s hard to imagine them being fans of the Doom videogames.
Towards the end, the film experiments at a first-person camera view with a gun as the viewpoint (just like the videogame). The effect could have been better implemented, but the style itself is cool…and gutsy. It would have been better though if the style was liberally spread out throughout the whole film instead of being relegated to one long extended scene.
Unable to resist the wrestling background of The Rock, the director manages to squeeze in a fisticuffs fight as the final battle scene. We assume that the director resisted playing the videogame because otherwise he might have known that in the game, the purpose is on shooting, not belly slamming. Which is more than what I can say about the film: resist! (1/5)
Cast: see below
The good: The Rock, Karl Urban and the hot Rosamund Pike
The bad: don’t get me started
Based on the popular videogame of the same name, Doom is about a group of marines who are sent to a scientific facility in Mars after a distress signal is alerted. The videogames stick to mindless action extravaganza; the movie…well…it TRIES not to.
The marines are led by a certain Sarge (The Rock). His second-in-command, Reaper (Karl Urban), however, is the true protagonist. And since the marketing for the film suggests otherwise, there is a lingering scent of the unfathomable. Anyway, the marines are sent to the facility to search, rescue, retrieve, and destroy – the standard gamut of any self-respecting marine force. Some will die; others won’t – the standard gamut of any self-respecting suspense/action/sci-fi flick. Ironically, the words “standard” and “self-respect” shouldn’t be put in the same sentence as that of the film’s title as it doesn’t meet the former and doesn’t command the latter.
The marines meet with Dr. Sandra Grimm (Rosamund Pike), who is the sister of Reaper (get it? Grimm and Reaper). The film tries to inject some sense of character to the two through a backstory involving the death of their parents, their ten years of no contact, and what have you. But just like the thrown-in-for-good-measure love subplot of The Great Raid (involving Joseph Fiennes and Connie Nielsen), the attempt at characterization is noteworthy but lacking in real depth to be really effective.
Dr, Grimm explains that they have discovered humanoids in Mars who have 24 pairs of chromosomes. Apparently, we only have 23 and this extra pair infuses super-human characteristics to the recipient. However, as they later discover, the 24th chromosome may or may not trigger a genetic mutation to a person, depending on his personality. This chromosome will be quite useful in today’s times as we may find out if Michael Jackson is really a pedophile or not. Jackson references aside, this admittedly cool sci-fi concept is what caused the monsters that you’ll barely see. You’ll barely see them because the film is so friggin’ dark that even the supposedly “best of the best” marines have trouble hitting them. The question is: Is this an intended atmospheric visual style, or just plain money not wanting to be spent? Another question is: If we are the descendants of the humanoids from Mars (they arrived in Earth through a portal they built which is now the source of travel from here to there), how come we only have 23 pairs of chromosomes and not 24?
The bigger question though is what The Rock, Karl Urban, and the gorgeous Rosamund Pike (from Die Another Day) is doing in a sorry excuse for a film like this. Apart from The Rock, it’s hard to imagine them being fans of the Doom videogames.
Towards the end, the film experiments at a first-person camera view with a gun as the viewpoint (just like the videogame). The effect could have been better implemented, but the style itself is cool…and gutsy. It would have been better though if the style was liberally spread out throughout the whole film instead of being relegated to one long extended scene.
Unable to resist the wrestling background of The Rock, the director manages to squeeze in a fisticuffs fight as the final battle scene. We assume that the director resisted playing the videogame because otherwise he might have known that in the game, the purpose is on shooting, not belly slamming. Which is more than what I can say about the film: resist! (1/5)
posted by NaCl at Thursday, November 03, 2005
2 comments
