If you’re in your mid-20’s, it’s likely that the movie Doom will need no introduction. You’ll already be pretty familiar with the computer game it’s based on — one of those with the pentagrams and lava pits and demonoid monsters and you run around and shoot things. You may even be vaguely aware that the game was a hit in a way that very few games are; it was so hugely popular that it spawned an entire genre of like-minded software, collectively known as First-Person Shooters.
Everything from Counterstrike to Thief to Far Cry has its roots in Doom — some games literally so. Counterstrike, for example, is a modification of Halflife, which is in turn, built on top of Quake 1, the follow-up game to Doom and Doom 2. Games like Call of Duty and Return to Castle Wolfenstein were similarly built on top of the game engine of Quake 3. Doom is more or less where it all began, and I say this not because I enjoy being pedantic, but to give you a sense of just how archetypal this game is.
When I first learned that they were making a Doom movie, I was not very excited. Hollywood’s track record for making video-game-based movies is fairly abysmal and I expected the worst. I mean, let’s face it: important and groundbreaking as they were, the Doom games were not revered for their story quality. Rather: they were the first games that demonstrated how uniquely immersive a game experience can be, and how giving a player full freedom of movement can be the single most effective way of achieving this. This wasn’t, I believed, the sort of thing you could accurately portray within the film medium and for the most part, I was correct.
Which is not to say that I didn’t enjoy Doom the movie immensely. It’s cliché- and stereotype-ridden, sure. There’s not a single plot twist that you don’t see coming a mile away, certainly. And there’s very little in the way of originality, or even mild inventiveness. But I can honestly say that I watched all 100 minutes of it with a half-smile on my face and my eyes glued to the screen. I’m a fan, what can I say.
But being a fan I do have a number of gripes as well. The first is that I dislike the genetic-experimentation-gone-wrong plot. That’s Resident Evil territory. The source of Doom’s antagonists have always been a portal to Hell, the resulting iconic symbolism of which is a big part of what makes Doom Doom. This was the big flaw for me, in that I didn’t want to see a crappier Aliens. I wanted to see a better Event Horizon.
Unfortunately, a crappier Aliens was what we got, although seeing The Rock carefully enunciate his way through Doom’s awkwardly-stilted dialogue was truly a sight to behold.
My second gripe is related to Karl Urban, who I dislike almost as much as I dislike genetic-experimentation-gone-wrong. In Doom’s killer scene, Karl Urban’s character wakes up and discovers that he’s become superhuman, and we’re treated to the world’s first cinematic First-Person-Shooter sequence as he guns down mutant after mutant after mutant. I totally loved/hated this scene … I’m still a bit conflicted about it as I write this.
For one thing, I loved how, for 2 whole minutes, it was like playing Doom 3 on a 50-foot screen. But at the same time I hated how it pandered so shamelessly to the fanboys. And I think I hated myself a little bit for enjoying it so much as well.
I think the lesson with movies like Doom is that it’s possible to make a film with no redeeming social value whatsoever (and very little to offer in terms of an engaging story), and yet still be convincingly entertaining for most of its running time. It connected with its audience on a level way below rational thought, and tapped something deep down in our gut instead. In that sense, this is the single most apt game-adaptation ever produced, because the Doom games did exactly the same thing.