*Warning* This review contains mild spoilers to the GAME, but not the movie.
A dig in the nevada desert have found a portal to an ancient city on mars. Since then, scientists have struggled 20 years to find out more about the civilization that built the city and why they disappeared.
Apparently they found something. In an emergency transmission sent from the science facility on mars a head scientist explains that there is a "level 5 breach" and quarantine procedures must be implemented immediately. A squad of elite soldiers are sent to the science facility on Mars to protect and retrieve property and make sure quarantine is kept. What they find is naturally more than they are trained and equipped for.
This is another game that made it into the silver screen, and the DOOM franchise isn't exactly known for it's multi-depth story lines. This made me seek out and watch this movie with plenty of ice in my stomach, ready to forgive the producers for mistakes they made.
And mistakes were made. The greatest one was of course to change the entire plot. As a gamer who put more value in story than the action, I would personally say that the DOOM3 storyline was better than the movies (completely changed) storyline. In the game the city plays a central role. In the movie you never leave the work areas, you never get to see the old ruins. The city isn't even mentioned beyond the intro. Beyond 2 <10 second scenes, you do not see the Mars exterior. You barely register that these events take place on Mars, not on earth. The artifacts that played a central role in the game is not mentioned or present in the movie. The entire "Hell is loose" plot was completely cut away, the events of the movie blamed onto something *COMPLETELY* different. The theme "one man against hell" became "a few men and their issues". The ghost of the little girl (one of the games scarier parts) did not make it to the move.
DOOM3 was also a horror experience playing both on achluophobia (fear of darkness) and Monophobia (fear of being alone), this was an aspect missing in the movie where areas was lit and the characters was always going at least two and two. I almost think the movie could have been better if they hired less actors and put more money on storywriters.
Another aspect completely gone is the ambient red tone of being on mars, something that could have added a more artistic flavor to the movie. Except for very short moments in the beginning of the movie you never see that these events in fact take place on mars.
I was not happy to see the storyline almost completely changed and the horror downscaled to almost not scary at all with nothing better added to it. There are no deep questions asked here, no philosophical submessage to the audience to go home thinking about. This is a lighthearted actionmovie and that's it.
The most faithful part (to the game) is the labs and the monsters. he developers who made the game gave the areas/monsters/weapons an unique design that wouldn't have been right to move away from. If you care zero about the plot, then yes this is DOOM.
There's also the first person sequence in which we get to follow a series of events through the eyes of a soldier when he runs around and shoot monsters in corridors. It was fun, although I would say that it failed to capture me. I was mostly annoyed with the choice of music and it could have been more scary.
I see some ways this movie could have been made better with the material it's based on, but I did not expect it. At least the action is well done. If you want 2 hours of entertainment that wont change your world, DOOM offers just that. If you do not watch many movies and want some extra quality when spending time on one, you can jump this one.
Game-movies so far are between "awful" and "ok". This one was "ok".
