Doom (2005)
The video game movie curse seemed very real for over a decade. For for this period, filmmakers and studios did not feel a very strong loyalty to the fanbase. Many of them seemed to just ride the coat tails of a strong video game intellectual property while doing the bare minimum in staying close to the source material. Doom seemed to be a victim of this mentality toward the franchise we know and love. Doom had a surface level understanding of the game it was trying to replicate. When we see the levels in the original 1993 release, there is an interesting theme of diesel punk mixed with demonic images with a dash of cyberpunk mixed in.
Instead of trying to stick to the video game's atmosphere, this film seems to stick more toward Doom 3's outlook. It's more a spaceship theme with darker tones, reminding you more of Alien than Doom. This could have been a good way to go about things, but the movie doesn't extract anything out of it that feels inherently Doom. That's not to say it had to focus on a single Space Marine going up against an entire horde of demons for two full hours. There is obviously room to play with the source material, it's just that they put in some Marine cliches, made them walk around in dark areas, get scared and then get killed. That's a large part of the movie.
The cast is probably one of the better things about this movie. Karl Urban turned out to be a decent protagonist, the real problem is the way that they treated Dwayne Johnson's character. The way they integrated all of the Doom lore into the movie relies heavily on both of these guys, and the rest of the movie is just your average action horror movie with zombie fodder and all.
Oh, yes, this is a zombie movie through and through. It's understandable that they wanted to stick more to practical effects, but it would have been worth some CGI if it meant we actually got more demons. We get a pinky and an imp and the rest of them are zombies. I don't know what the Rock turned into, but it wasn't on the demon roster. At this point, zombies had already been played out in Hollywood and one of the best zombie remakes was made around this time with Dawn of the Dead. This was just the cheapest route they could take and it did not do the film any favors.
The BFG was so mishandled in this film, it's almost comical. After already pelting us with such a clunky First Person Shooter segment that goes on for FAR too long, they had to shoot the BFG twice, making it do next to nothing in terms of the actual story. This was the effort they put into making this movie a Doom movie, and it just flat out did not work.
What we actually got was just mediocre and might be a little fun to have in the background of a Halloween party or something along those lines. It's not terrible in terms of quality, and you can easily sit through it without too much discomfort. It's not exciting enough to really capture the essence of Doom and the atmosphere it did go for was just so generic. The film makers obviously didn't know that much about Doom or what fans would have expected and that shows in the product. That's not to say it's worse than what came after, though...
Doom Annihilation
You'd think they'd learned their lesson on calling their movies such a generic subtitle, but I guess the failure of the Mortal Kombat sequel just hadn't quite sunk in. This is very fitting because this movie is really no better in many ways. Joan D'arc was a completely mediocre protagonist with very little character development. Despite this, all of the other characters get even less character! The entire movie is packed with even bigger Marine cliches than the first movie and that is saying something. It turns into a more action leaning zombie movie, but it's still, yet again, a zombie movie.
We get more in the ways of Doom, on the whole, but none of it is handled well at all. Even the BFG's big second appearance is marred by a complete lack in presence. They devote an entire scene to introducing Doom's greatest weapon and all it is is just a simple laser gun. They cheaped out on the biggest asset in the movie and that is not even close to where they stop cheaping out.
The sets, the costumes, pretty much everything about this movie takes you out of the atmosphere and reminds you that these are just people dressing up and shooting fake guns. Even their comically pathetic attempt at the Super Shotgun was another flop. It is just sad how they tried to make this look so awesome and action packed, but executed it like a C movie straight to video film.
Overall, the story is the same as the first movie, only it had a bit more of Doom mixed in. What that amounts to is some impressive looking demons with a nice hellscape that lasts maybe five minutes. They blew their entire budget on a CGI background and left nothing for the actual spaceship itself as they reuse the same three hallways for every shot. The acting is hardly worth mentioning, as it's as bland as the movie itself.
Annihilation should never have been made in the first place. It's obvious that they were just making it to keep the movie rights to Doom and maybe get a shiny nickel out of the deal. What we got was panned and quartered by fans in a beautiful barrage of horrible reviews and scathing memes that dropped it down into a punchline among Doom fans. They had a chance to bring a lady into the arena of Doom heroes and they failed in the execution. The actress they got had a very expressionless performance and the attempts to humanize her with a tragic backstory just fell flat with nothing but a halfbaked love story between her and one of the technicians on the base. It's pretty obvious where everything is going and the movie makes no moves to disuade any and all predictions.
There is very little to like about this movie, and it was lambasted by critics and Doom fans. This movie was a simple kick out the door to keep the license and they shot it out in a very large hurry with little expense. This shouldn't be seen as the video game curse, not when so many corners were cut. It did the bare minimum to make it even close to having the atmosphere or right to call itself Doom. The leading lady is bland and seemingly on autopilot while the rest of the characters do next to nothing to make us care about them. It didn't even have Dwayne Johnson or Karl Urban to bring any sort of dignity to it. While it did beat out the first movie in actual Doom lore in a 5 minute scene, there's really no further effort as there just was no budget for any of it. Hellfire lit by flashlight.
