Doom

Maybe I’ve just been in a magnanimous mood lately; I’ve liked almost every movie, new TV series, or DVD I’ve watched in the past couple of weeks. Surprisingly, Doom is no exception.

I say “surprisingly” because I’m generally not a fan of video game movies, nor am I gamer. I’ve only played Doom once, at a level set so low my only danger was getting a hangnail, but I do know that for most participants it’s an extremely violent, action-packed, monster-filled rollercoaster ride that plummets them vicariously into the sense-sharpening first-person shooter perspective. Doom the movie follows that tried and true game formula to a T, while adding a cinematically suitable back story.

Something has gone terribly wrong at the Olduvai Research Station, a remote scientific base on Mars. It’s declared a Level 5 quarantine and the only ones allowed in or out are the Rapid Response Tactical Squad. The rough-hewn Space Marines are led by Sarge (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) and the core unit consists of a smart guy (Karl Urban), a crazy guy (Ben Daniels), a horndog (Razaaq Adoti), a badass (Deobia Oparei), and a rookie (Al Weaver).

The smart guy, John Grimm, just happens to have a sister who’s a scientist working on the base — her name is Sam (Rosamund Pike), and she knows more about what’s gone wrong than she initially lets on, putting everyone’s life in peril. The dark, subterranean station is overrun with demons, imps and zombie-like creatures — where did they come from, and how can they be stopped?

We learn the former eventually, and see a lot of the latter in the form of relentlessly kick-ass, scary stalk-and-chase sequences.

Like the sci-fi horror action adventure game upon which it based, Doom is an unapologetically big, loud, raucous adrenaline rush. The hellbent-on-murder creatures, mostly depicted using practical effects only augmented by CGI, are truly nightmarish. Hell Knight and The Pinky Demon don’t have personalities per se (unlike the Predator or Alien) but they’ll definitely hold your attention. The human characters are mostly one-dimensional, but the actors all do a great job of making the most of what they’ve got to work with. The Rock never does his trademark eyebrow twitch, but he’s well-cast as a tough-talking bigger-than-life action hero; the pretty Pike is plained down, making for a believable enough egghead; and Urban shucks his Lord of the Rings elf and channels his inner shooter with gusto.

The much talked about first-person shooter sequence in the movie is extremely well-done. Everything — from the accelerating music, to the claustrophobic corridors, to the jump scares, to the picking up of new weapons and earning more lives — is spot-on enough for gamers while managing to not lose the non-gamers in the melee.

Doom is as advertised: A rated R, uber-violent, action-crammed, horror-filled science fiction movie that doesn’t just cut to the chase — it is the chase from start to finish.

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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson