During the 1990's, a rumour was enthusiastically circulated that Arnold Schwarzenegger would portray the lone space marine at the heart of the familiar 'Doom' storyline. But that casting call made in heaven never materialised; the opportunity to make a 'Doom' movie at a time when both Arnie and the game were the hottest properties on the planet was lost.
Now, years later on the coat tails of 'Doom 3', we are at last given Doom - The Movie. Sadly, the project has not matured like a fine wine. Instead, it seems to have gone stale. Ironically, thanks in no small part to the legacy of the Doom games, we have seen this kind of film rather a lot and a new entry in the genre has to be something really special if it is to have a hope of standing out. This movie is mediocre in just about every department - with the exception of the screenplay...and the screenplay is so poor that it is difficult to summon up a negative term which adequately describes its utter awfulness.
The main characters are supposed to be an elite military task force - yet most of them suffer from such disturbing personality flaws that they would be deemed unfit to serve in the Catering Corps. Their leader has the mentality of a Nazi; the squad is also blessed with a psychopathic and masochistic religious maniac who cuts himself, a bi-sexual pervert who uses drugs, a melancholy depressive and a chemically-dependent coward who seems to have no understanding of even basic military skills. Fortunately, politically-correct viewers can watch without fear of damaging their sensitive nerves because the two black guys in the unit are both warm, caring and well-balanced individuals.
I watched the so-called unrated extended version which allegedly contains scenes too strong to be included in the cinematic release. I am still trying to work out which parts of the movie were considered to be that scary. In my opinion, there was nothing in the unrated extended version which merited any kind of censorship. The monsters were not very impressive; the special effects were adequate but far from inspired. Doom is saved from being a complete disaster by the cast - they did a pretty good job, despite being chained to generally unrealistic characters.
If you can buy the notion that a bunch of feeble-minded, coked up degenerates belong in the special forces (instead of a school for special needs), Doom provides a couple of hours of fairly average no-brains action.
Now, years later on the coat tails of 'Doom 3', we are at last given Doom - The Movie. Sadly, the project has not matured like a fine wine. Instead, it seems to have gone stale. Ironically, thanks in no small part to the legacy of the Doom games, we have seen this kind of film rather a lot and a new entry in the genre has to be something really special if it is to have a hope of standing out. This movie is mediocre in just about every department - with the exception of the screenplay...and the screenplay is so poor that it is difficult to summon up a negative term which adequately describes its utter awfulness.
The main characters are supposed to be an elite military task force - yet most of them suffer from such disturbing personality flaws that they would be deemed unfit to serve in the Catering Corps. Their leader has the mentality of a Nazi; the squad is also blessed with a psychopathic and masochistic religious maniac who cuts himself, a bi-sexual pervert who uses drugs, a melancholy depressive and a chemically-dependent coward who seems to have no understanding of even basic military skills. Fortunately, politically-correct viewers can watch without fear of damaging their sensitive nerves because the two black guys in the unit are both warm, caring and well-balanced individuals.
I watched the so-called unrated extended version which allegedly contains scenes too strong to be included in the cinematic release. I am still trying to work out which parts of the movie were considered to be that scary. In my opinion, there was nothing in the unrated extended version which merited any kind of censorship. The monsters were not very impressive; the special effects were adequate but far from inspired. Doom is saved from being a complete disaster by the cast - they did a pretty good job, despite being chained to generally unrealistic characters.
If you can buy the notion that a bunch of feeble-minded, coked up degenerates belong in the special forces (instead of a school for special needs), Doom provides a couple of hours of fairly average no-brains action.