Paradise Reel

Doom

I find myself running down a corridor towards what seems to be a dead end. Footsteps can be heard behind me as I’m sure my friend is following close. The lane opens out to a larger carpeted lobby with a single door leading into blackness. There is not much choice as to where to go so I run into the nether only to be confronted by a series of snaking steps heading upwards. No choice, I rush up the stairs and at the top, I’m greeted by a 100 foot tall behemoth of a cinema screen with displaying an image of the planet Mars. I think we are in the right place I whisper to my friend as we quickly find our seats near the top of the theater. What actually happened was that I accidentally bought tickets to the recent game-to-film adaptation “Doom” at the IMAX cinema instead of the regular cineplex (they share the same ticketing booth for some reason). So not only did we have to pay an extra dollar to the admission, we had to contend with craning our necks left to right and back to take in the whole spectacle of this action/adventure.

This film is based on the hit video game of the same name which has sold millions of copies of its software and which most likely was pirated twice of that number. “Doom” is a film posits itself in a long line of space marines [i.e. “Aliens” (1986) and “Starship Troopers” (1997)] genre films. You have the battle hardened, testosterone charged male soldiers defending an installation overrun with creatures that you can blatantly kill with no sense of remorse. This is a thesis on the guilty pleasure of violence and mayhem and all things bloody which uniquely captures the essence of that pioneer of a first person shooting video game.

The story is a simple one. ‘Man’ has colonised the planet Mars and are doing biological research on some remains they found buried millenias ago. The research goes awry (naturally) and our Rapid Response Tactical squad of He-men armed with more firepower than North Korea are sent in to neutralize the situation. Needless to say, they were unprepared to handle a foe of such diabolical ferocity and things, along with people, get blown up on numerous occasions. Somehow I felt that the creators of this film sat down and came up with ten interesting ways to die and THEN built the story around it. But that is not to say that this film lacks a cohesive narrative. One thing I did like about the story that is does not try to explain everything in the first ten minutes which gives the audiences something to latch onto for the exposition of the film.

Director Andrzej Bartkowiak tries to bolster the plot and story by layering the characters with more depth but still fails to hit the mark. This, in turn leaves us a lukewarm tray of half baked characters which we do not care much for their demise. It is only the character of Sarge (played by The Rock) who is “supposed” to undergo major character development but all we encounter is Bartkowiak’s not so sleigh of hand in switching out one Sarge character for another. This is literally a case of the body snatchers as there is hardly any transition between the Sarge at the beginning of the movie and the Sarge at the end. It is like someone just dumped his evil clone in the film and forgot to tell us why.

There is not much acting required for this movie as most of the actors oscillate between looking pensive and blood cold scared. Karl Urban (from Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” and “The Return of the King”) gives us a pretty convincing bio-archaeologist turned space marine with a chip on his shoulder as he looks the part. Same goes for the rest of the cast as they ease into their roles without much trouble. One character of note is Pinky, the paraplegic on hotwheels played by Dexter Fletcher (who was SSgt. John Martin in the HBO series, “Band of Brothers”). Fans of the game will notice this tribute immediately.

Now that I’m clean out of bashing fodder, I shall dwell my efforts on the aspects that make this film fairly enjoyable. If there is one thing that “Doom” knows it’s good at, its action. There are some visceral action set pieces in this movie to warrant the price of admission. This will keep any action fan pampered for the duration of the movie and on top of that, it also sports one of the best American fistfights in Hollywood cinema I have ever seen. With “Matrix” (and other copycats films) forcing American actors to dabble with kung fu (or Wu Xia) that result in some god-awful fight scenes. It is a sight for sore eyes (no pun intended) to see an actual free for all fisty-brawl that does not cut away from the action.

The term FPS stands for “First Person Shooter”. A first for action showcases is a sequence strategically placed near the end of the film where the camera takes the place of the main character so essentially you (the audience) are looking at everything the character is sees, thus ‘becoming’ the character. This is a new level for screen and audience interactivity where the film totally immerses you within itself. It is true that there are plenty of other films who have accomplished this before but not in an action film of this scale, and definitely not to this level of detail. From where I was sitting in that mistaken darkened IMAX theater, it appeared as if I was ‘IN’ a high graphic detail rendition of the video game itself.

Some of you will come out of this film complaining about the mediocre plot and weak storyline but then ask yourself, why complain? This film does not make itself out than what it really wants to be, which is a late summer, early fall blockbuster actioner. Leave your brain with the usher and you will enjoy this film a lot more. This is a must-watch for any gamer and fans of action films as you will not be disappointed. Although marred by weak characterisation and stereotypical plot, this is one of the best game-to-film transitions ever. Forget “Mortal Kombat” and “Streetfighter”, “Doom” has finally managed to lift this genre from the pits of movie banality.