Well, I had a couple of hours to kill yesterday and so I caught a matinee of DOOM. I thought going in that it would probably be somewhat similar to Aliens - at least in terms of plot and setting. I doubted it would really compare favorably, but I thought it might be decent enough to at least try and measure up. Well, what a lame attempt. All I could think about while watching Doom was how much better Aliens was in every single regard. (Massive spoilers throughout.)
1) Production design. First, I have to say that I rather enjoyed Doom3 - primarily for the atmosphere and the level design and detail. I liked exploring this huge world that seemed totally lived in. I liked coming upon the various active machines and having the UAC corporate videos explain exactly what they were for.
The movie had none of the sprawling, gritty, hi-tech yet menacing atmosphere of the game (or of Aliens). They were really just running around these bland corridors or in a boring concrete sewer. The couple of rooms they actually went into were your standard-issue movie laboratories with your standard-issue science equipment. They could have at least borrowed some of the look and ideas of the game levels. As it was, the movie just seemed to take place in a small, rinky-dink lab that could've been anywhere. And the archeological dig site? WFT? It looked like an old basement. Maybe Doom had budget limitations, but so did Aliens and it sure managed to get the atmosphere right.
2) For the whole Mars segment, there were only six full monsters? In the game and in Aliens you really felt outnumbered, overwhelmed, and that the danger could come from anywhere. In the Doom movie you knew there were more Marines than creatures so there wasn't much tension there. Sure there were more targets when they got to Earth, but it was mostly weak scientist zombies - BORING.
3) Shooting tongues? Pretty lame, Milhouse. Watch out! Don't let the monsters lick you! The tongue-as-weapon thing just reminded me of one more thing that Aliens did much better.
4) Major thing I don't get about the plot. Ok - injecting this 24th chromosome in a good person makes one nearly invincible, but turns a bad person into a monster. And, the monsters wouldn't infect good people because they knew they wouldn't then become monsters? Well, then, what's the problem? If the monsters are only going after bad people, the heros should have just been able to walk around no problem.
By the way, it doesn't speak well for the UAC's hiring as literally dozens and dozens of their employees were infected and all became bloodthirsty zombies. There wasn't a single good person in that whole group?
5) And then there was the ending. WTF? A goofy WWF match between two humans? This is DOOM!!! Where are the freakin' monsters?
6) Where was the scare or creep factor? I guess there were a couple mild jump moments like the monkey in the vent, but come on! This is Doom! It's supposed to be a horror-show! Where are the rooms turning into meat?!?
I'm not gonna complain any more about acting, plot, etc., because I wasn't expecting much in the way of that. I was expecting an Aliens knock-off with exciting shoot-em-up sequencies in cool locations with lots of different kinds of monsters. What I got was some mildly suspensful cat-and-mouse action in a completely generic location. The graphics under the ending credits showed what it should have been.
Perhaps my expectations were too high, but I wanted this movie to at least try to be as scary, horrifying, effective, and just plain cool as Aliens. It didn't seem to even try.
By the way - just so I'm not all negative, here are the few things I did like:
1) Production design. First, I have to say that I rather enjoyed Doom3 - primarily for the atmosphere and the level design and detail. I liked exploring this huge world that seemed totally lived in. I liked coming upon the various active machines and having the UAC corporate videos explain exactly what they were for.
The movie had none of the sprawling, gritty, hi-tech yet menacing atmosphere of the game (or of Aliens). They were really just running around these bland corridors or in a boring concrete sewer. The couple of rooms they actually went into were your standard-issue movie laboratories with your standard-issue science equipment. They could have at least borrowed some of the look and ideas of the game levels. As it was, the movie just seemed to take place in a small, rinky-dink lab that could've been anywhere. And the archeological dig site? WFT? It looked like an old basement. Maybe Doom had budget limitations, but so did Aliens and it sure managed to get the atmosphere right.
2) For the whole Mars segment, there were only six full monsters? In the game and in Aliens you really felt outnumbered, overwhelmed, and that the danger could come from anywhere. In the Doom movie you knew there were more Marines than creatures so there wasn't much tension there. Sure there were more targets when they got to Earth, but it was mostly weak scientist zombies - BORING.
3) Shooting tongues? Pretty lame, Milhouse. Watch out! Don't let the monsters lick you! The tongue-as-weapon thing just reminded me of one more thing that Aliens did much better.
4) Major thing I don't get about the plot. Ok - injecting this 24th chromosome in a good person makes one nearly invincible, but turns a bad person into a monster. And, the monsters wouldn't infect good people because they knew they wouldn't then become monsters? Well, then, what's the problem? If the monsters are only going after bad people, the heros should have just been able to walk around no problem.
By the way, it doesn't speak well for the UAC's hiring as literally dozens and dozens of their employees were infected and all became bloodthirsty zombies. There wasn't a single good person in that whole group?
5) And then there was the ending. WTF? A goofy WWF match between two humans? This is DOOM!!! Where are the freakin' monsters?
6) Where was the scare or creep factor? I guess there were a couple mild jump moments like the monkey in the vent, but come on! This is Doom! It's supposed to be a horror-show! Where are the rooms turning into meat?!?
I'm not gonna complain any more about acting, plot, etc., because I wasn't expecting much in the way of that. I was expecting an Aliens knock-off with exciting shoot-em-up sequencies in cool locations with lots of different kinds of monsters. What I got was some mildly suspensful cat-and-mouse action in a completely generic location. The graphics under the ending credits showed what it should have been.
Perhaps my expectations were too high, but I wanted this movie to at least try to be as scary, horrifying, effective, and just plain cool as Aliens. It didn't seem to even try.
By the way - just so I'm not all negative, here are the few things I did like:
- Universal logo with Mars instead of the Earth
- First person sequence - if only he was fighting real monsters instead of boring zombie scientists.
- Pinky fight!
- Pit fight!
- Transport helicoptor
- Carmack monster stuck in nanodoor, still alive
- Weapons designs
- Most of the characters/actors (especially the Grimms and Duke). I even found The Rock to be reasonably entertaining.
- Computer screen designs had the same style as those in the game.