Doom Movie *Spoilers*

[retroborg]

Ok, so I must say it was quite better than I expected it to be. It does take place in Mars after all, even though the base isn’t as vast as in Doom 3.
They did a good job with the imps & the Hell Knights looked almost identical to the ones in Doom 3.
The scenario was missing the dimensional gate ways to Hell & the hell spawns were actually mutated scientists, instead of demons, which was a disappointment.
Also the dark & sinister atmosphere of the game was missing.

The FPS scene was awesome; it looked as if it was taken directly from Doom3 & House of the Dead, especially the part with the axe dropping on the zombie's head.
I loved the part when the soldier was attacked by the “pinky” mechanical hell dog, which was actually the guy with the wheel chair that was grabbed earlier by the Hell Knight.
The whole scene resembled the “pinky” attack scene from Doom3 alpha imo.

I wish the BFG had been used a bit more in the movie. Also the blue colour of the blast simply didn’t justify the destructive, sinister & nuclear green colour of the game’s BFG.

What I found stupid was the part when the hell knight cut through a thick steel door leading to the ark gate way, using a chainsaw.

Oh, and that Rock “actor”… well, he sucked, big time that is!
But then again, so was most of the cast of the actors.

It was funny that the old scientist's name was "Dr. Carmack" after John Carmack, the owner of id software.

[Pirks]

They did a good job with the imps & the Hell Knights looked almost identical to the ones in Doom 3.


Well, Hell knights and imps missed their punch, 'cause they didn't have FIREBALLZ! Especially imps. In the game this is neverending pleasure - you carefully walk in the dark passage of the dead lab covered with blood and pentagrams... listening, watching, shivering... and then suddenly bammm! side panel shoots across the corridor and that hissing and high-pitch almost ultrasound scream, and a set of little RED glowing eyes jumps on the floor... in a sec there's a RED glow appearing, and I can see the dark imp's silhouette... I start firing at it frantically, strafing to the side... damn! the wall! I can't strafe... the imp holds the FIREBALL for a sec, looks as if he takes an aim, and then THROWS it! I see it coming, closer, closer... and then I realize I have to strafe FROM the wall, I press the key I gonna dieee... and than THAT sound!!! WHHOOOSHHH! THE FIREBALL is just half an inch from my ear, my speakers hiss and yell, they sing the song of red fire death, and my sub is crushing the ceiling of my neighbors below... whshzzz... the ball went to the back and... BAANG!!! Exploded. The imp is ridden with my bullets, jerks, tumbles over, rolls in agony and again that hiss and yell... and the RED ash... ahhhhhhhh... where's my handkerchief? Gotta go make myself some tea, or my adrenaline will kill me faster than that imp.

And in the movie? BLUE thing? Excuse me? WITH A TONGUE? GENETIC EXPERIMENTATION, DNA IN THAT TONGUE SEARCHES for the perfect match? WTF??!!

I'm not stomping on that movie, the FPS sequence is a masterpiece, I felt almost I was in DOOM for a minute, unexpressable feeling, and I love Karl Urban, especially after watching his character in the Chronicles of Riddick. I won't say anything about the Rock. You don't like him, but still his line "I think I have ONE round" - that required Rock to say it _properly_ :-)

But, well, removing 60% from the story, all that demonic stuff, and sweet sweet mindblowing Hell... and replacing it with some genetic stuff... ahh, why didn't they do it much more close to the game? I think the problem was pretty low budget of this movie. Do you think they wouldn't be able to do it with some real money? Like what Peter Jackson had for LOTR? One-third of that sum, just for one LOTR episode - it would make Doom movie much more enjoyable.

So my verdict - low budget spoiled it. I don't want to think that script writer was thinking about genetic crap because he wanted to spoil the story. I say - he did it because he knew that the budget the director had couldn't allow for real neat stuff. All the money that went into that movie would be probably barely enough to shoot _properly_ just a _small_ sequence from the game where you, say, battle with a couple of Hell Knights and one Mancubus somewhere deep in Hell.

If someone knows more about how they made the movie, why they chose such a crappy script - please post here. I'd like to know how close my version of explanation is to the real truth. Thank you.

[Koepi]

Game-stories themselfes are already more than weak. Making a proper movie script with such a base is impossible; just look at the final fantasy movie, tomb raider or any other movie that derived from a computer game. They all _suck_.

Thus I expect the doom movie to be a teenager/children's movie anyway. Nothing proper to be done with that base story.

Sorry that I can't share your enthusiasm for the movie. :)

Cheers
Koepi

[Shinigami-Sama]

I dissagree, the tomb raider movies was pretty good, atleast for, shal we say, 'enthusicastic' men

but seeing doom isn't high on my list, atleast from the moanings and groaning I've heard about it, though I still wanna see it eventualy

[castellanos]

Originally posted by Koepi
Game-stories themselfes are already more than weak. Making a proper movie script with such a base is impossible; just look at the final fantasy movie, tomb raider or any other movie that derived from a computer game. They all _suck_.
It could be... However, it sounds a little bit subjective.
I agree with you about Tom Raider, I did not like it so much and it seems to work better "Movie --> Game" than "Game --> Movie" but... I don't think it is something that we could generalize.
"Hitman" could be an exception! :)
Viele Grüße!

[retroborg]

Actually I did not for see the wheel chair guy turning into the "pinky" (Even though it was quite obvious):D
I found that part funny in a twisted kind of way...

Karl Urban in Chronicles of Riddick?
I watched that movie 4 days ago, but I don't remember him being in that?
Which character was he by the way?
I also liked that movie, especially the ending. Very epic/dramatic & similar to the ending of Dune. The whole theme/story & the Dark Army resembled House Harkonnen from Dune.

[DAvenger]

A perfect movie to take your geeky gf to for a date, lol

With all respect, I think this movie is going to suck.

[Doobie]

A decade ago, there was talk of a Doom movie. What took so long?

[Pirks]

Game-stories themselfes are already more than weak. Making a proper movie script with such a base is impossible; just look at the final fantasy movie, tomb raider or any other movie that derived from a computer game. They all _suck_.
Thus I expect the doom movie to be a teenager/children's movie anyway. Nothing proper to be done with that base story.


Most of the time that's correct, unless you have a decent game story to start with. Let's take a look at Max Payne. Do you think it's impossible to make a good movie based on that game? I disagree. Why? Because I saw Sin City, the movie that was made from comic book. Which is somewhat similar to the game. With Max Payne you have interesting story, proper mood and bullet time. Get a truckload of money (like Peter Jackson did) and DO NOT, DO NOT, DOO NOOT!!! spoil the STORY!! This is RULE NUMBER ONE, and ALL the directors who want to make good movies should LEARN IT.

Imagine Max Payne turned into boring soap opera, because instead of chasing high level female executive of some sinister company he starts arresting bums, panhandlers and hookers, 'cause this is his job now, in THIS NEW SPOILED STORY. Imagine Max Payne turning into your next door traffic policeman. Scary? Yes, for me it is. I hate seeing Max Payne turning into next door guy, selling popcorn, arresting hookers and all the other soap opera crap. I want Max from the game.

This is exactly situation with the Doom movie. Look at Sin City - did Rodriguez change the story? NO! Why? BECAUSE HE KNOWS THIS RULE: "DO NOT F$%K WITH A STORY, AND DO NOT F$%K WITH A PROPER MOOD" [in Tyler Durden's voice :-) ]

Yes, Rodrigues added a lot to the story. I agree the story was probably not the single component of this movie that rocked. But! The comic heros were not turned into, say, blue genetic mutants chasing innocent girls and licking them with their DNA infected tongue or something... they were not even turned into your next door reality TV show "stars", they are your REAL, ONE HUNDRED PERCENT AUTHENTIC (note this important word "authentic") FRANK MILLER CHARACTERS.

Are the characters in Doom one hundred percent authentic? OK, let's see. Here's my subjective analysis, but I think most people reading this would agree with that in general, sans some details. And I suppose to understand me it's necessary to see the movie first. So, let's begin:

1) The Sarge. Doom-like? Authentic? More yes than no. He fits with the movie, he has proper face, he says lines like "I think I have ONE round" the way Doom character would say it, so he's ok. He kind of fits in there. I won't insist he's 100% authentic, some people don't like him in general, but as a character he's pretty close to real Doom guy as I see it.
2) The Reaper. This is my favorite character, so I'm gonna be biased here. For me he's 100% authentic Doom guy. Hard to say why. He's definitely more human than the Sarge, but.. that moment in FPS sequence, in the very begininng of it where he stands up and looks at himself in the mirror - Jesus, that was the closest moment to the real Doom in the whole movie. I experienced a moment of flashback when I saw Reaper in the mirror. In his face I saw myself in Doom watching ME in the mirror first time in Doom, this was kind of special experience for me. So here Reaper touched my gamer's sould pretty deep ;-) I'd call him the best Doom-fitting character in the movie. YMMV of course.
3) Sam, sister of Reaper. Doom character? Veeery, veeeeryyy far from it, unfortunately. There was no such character in Doom so it was fake. There was one nice female in Doom, the plasma weapon specialist (forgot her name) whose head tore off and started biting and screaming, you all know that sequence in the game. Now this is authentic Doom experience. Its very very gory and unpleasant to watch first time, but still... Sam is not that, she's just your regular soap opera character. Not Doom-fitting, definitely.
4) The Christian Marine (forgot his name - he carved a cross on his wrist because he mentioned Lord's name in vain). Fitting Doom? I'd say he's in the third place in the list, or about that. He's not that close to the Doom character, but his toughness and religiousness are kind of cool... but nothing special happens to him UNTIL HE TURNS INTO A ZOMBIE, yeeaahh, that was the moment of moments - remember the zombie beating his head against the glass door in the game? God it's ugly, troubling and full of despair. When I saw it in game I felt real real sick, that was just too much... AND HERE IT IS AGAIN IN THE MOVIE! So they decided to recreate that moment, and it's as ugly and hard to watch as in the game. If not for this moment, the Christian Marine would be not very fitting, authentic Doom guy, but now it's hard to say. Fifty-fifty.
5) Portman. Crazy guy with pills. Nice, I liked him. He was more psychotic than others and that kind of mood fits the game. When you get to Mars base in the game, you're not supposed to stay sane all the time. Real human being of course would break apart psychotically even before entering Hell... So Portman was going in that direction already, which is right direction for the game, and hence he's definitely fitting in the game. Stamp "APPROVED" seal on him :-)
6) Pinky. Except for the clever trick with his name and wheelchair to somehow justify appearance real Doom Pinky Daemon, he has nothing to do there. Not authentic at all, just like Sam.
7) Young rookie marine. Not authentic. He dies because of evil Sarge, that was somewhat touching, but rookie has nothing to do on Mars if you follow REAL STORY (that's what I'm doing here)
8) Dr. Carmack. I don't know. Putting this name in the movie was maybe funny for some, but is it authentic Doom? Ha. Ha. Ha. Now, wasn't there a little moment with Dr. Carmack which was 100% Doom authentic, of DA REAL DOOM flavor? Ohh yeeeaaahh! There was one. OK, maybe one and a half. The little half is in the beginning when he runs from the shadows, and then the female scientist's hand is cut by the closing door, and then the door starts bending inside, giving way to the creature outside. That's pretty close to the real Doom mood, that was good. The big moment however was much later, when marines found him (holding femaile scientist's hand! THAT was GOOD, Doom-like stuff! :)) and the first thing he did is he tore his ear off. Yeah, that was the moment CORRECTLY taken from Doom. No, there are no scientists tearing off their ears in the game. But, this is one of the very few examples of Rodriguez/Sin City style movie making. It's a rare example of properly capturing the mood of the game. Anyone who really dove deep into the game's atmosphere (not just shooting everyhthing, I'm talking about FEELING Doom, experiencing all the events that happened on that base) can feel this moment too. It's only his torn off ear that justifies Carmack's appearance in the movie, not his name.
9) Imps - they are much farther away from the true Doom than any human character, even Sam. They're just NOT from Doom. Yeah, they look like Doom imps in the dark, but the only thing that's common is the silhouette, and their multiple eyes look sort of impish... except the color :-( Again, look at the movie incarnation of the Yellow Bastard (yes, yes, I love Rodriguez too much, I know, but what can I do if he illustrates all my points?) in Sin City. You look at comic book and think "argh, that bastard must be ugly and yellow and stinking, bleah :P~~~" and then you see him in the movie and it's like "bleah :P~~~ he's soo ugly and soo Miller's character, I can almost smell his stench!" Is it ANYTHING LIKE this in Doom movie?
10) Hell Knight. Sigh. What can I add? Same silhouette, yes. Since he appears not as oftent as "imps" he's not as boring. Actually, when fighting a black marine in the pit he was looking good sometimes, especially when pinned on a hight-voltage barbed wire, so much growling and hate... this moment was as close as movie guys could get to the real Doom. Not as close as it should be done, but at least it captures the mood somewhat better than those pathetic "imps".
11) Pinky daemon. The best daemon in the movie, and the closest to the real Doom experience. A guy in wheelchair and the whole story have spoiled him pretty bad as well, but it was compensated with an FPS chainsaw sequence which was second best moment after the one I described above with Reaper watching himself in the mirror. So, not authentic Doom creature, but better than the others, in trying to be Doom-like. Sheesh, they all try this in the movie, with different degree of success :-)
12) The Ark, The Ancient Martian Civilization - just crap. All the events and logic sequence in the game were turned upside down and badly damaged. Where it seemed streamlined and cool in the game - it's ugly and hastily constructed by unexperienced workers in the movie.
13) The base on Mars. Fifty-ffity. Certain parts are pretty good, I smelled Doom smell in these dark passages :-) They seem almost taken directly from the game. Certain parts like going to sewers knee-deep in water - why? Not authentic, smelled like Alien or Predator or something like it. NOT Doom.

OK, I think it's enough. My main point here: as you can see human characters are arguably ok, especially two leading Marines. But the farther you shift from this core to the sidelines of the movie world, as you move from two leading Marines to the rest of their squad, and then to the supporting characters, and then to the scientiscts, then to Mars, base, imps, Ark, Martian civilzation and sewers - it gets worse and worse, and turns further and further from real cool and slim story into the cheap soap opera.

I'll finish my essay with this: before saying that game stories are crap and movies based on them will always be crap too
1) look at Max Payne
2) watch Sin City (ok, it's was not game, it was a comic book, but the story quality is close enough to Max Payne)
3) think again

Sometime someday maybe someone will make Sin City-like movie based on Max Payne-like game. And THEN all of you "game-based movies are crap 'cause game stories are crap" sceptics will be ashamed. Amen.

[Pirks]

Karl Urban in Chronicles of Riddick?
I watched that movie 4 days ago, but I don't remember him being in that?
Which character was he by the way?


He was Lord Vaako (I call him Lord Whacko ;-))). The guy whom Lord Marshal sent after Riddick. I really really like Urban playing that character. I can watch him once a month and every time I enjoy him. He's just like Clint Eastwood in the western classics - he just perfectly fits the plot and the movie universe.

He was also playing Eomer in LOTR - first marshal of the Rohan king who was expelled by Grima and then returned with Gandalf when Uruk-hai almost captured Rohan people in their mountain fortress. Eomer was pretty cool there, but somehow Vaako in Riddick was simply perfect, not just cool.


I also liked that movie, especially the ending. Very epic/dramatic & similar to the ending of Dune. The whole theme/story & the Dark Army resembled House Harkonnen from Dune.

Before watching Chronicles of Riddick I was a big fan of Star Wars in a theatrical sense, in a sence of perfect decorations and sweeping views and such (not the story, it's too childish). But after Chronicles of Riddick, after Necromonger's friggin' flying fortresses/mansions, after watching Lord Marshal's parade on a captured planet - Star Wars now look a bit shrunk :-) Somehow I stopped enjoying their architectural views and all the technology etc. The views and CG of Riddick movie blow any competition away.

And then there's Vin Diesel and Karl Urban... yeaahh... I better stop now :-)

OK, last note, I just remembered about sweeping views :-) Remember seeing views of Mars when travelling to Delta Labs on a train in Doom game? Compare it with Doom movie. Sad, isn't it? :-(

[retroborg]

Your points are very good.
Doom Movie, was one of the Games to movie titles that I actually liked... the other two being: Mortal Kombat 1 & Final Fantasy: Spirits Within.
If there had being more monsters, more fire fights & had the BFG's blast been Green instead of that blue jelly looking thing, it would have been almost perfect.

I still think it was stupid how the Hell Knight cut through the steel door blocking the ark, with a chain saw though...

Interesting, I thought Lord Vaako was cool & perfectly fitting for the movie, but he didn't quite look like Karl Urban from LORT (I guess because he was blonde in that and the cool armour in Riddick made him look different...) or Doom.

Also what's the name of the actor that played Lord Marshal?
He was cool too & just perfect for the Riddick Universe. I don't recall him in any other movie though...

[Pirks]

If there had being more monsters, more fire fights & had the BFG's blast been Green instead of that blue jelly looking thing, it would have been almost perfect.


I wish they hadn't changed the backbone of the game - invasion of Hell. I say, Invasion of Hell is equivalent of Doom. No invasion - no Doom, story wise. Plain and simple. What we have with the movie is something that only LOOKS like Doom, but is NOT Doom in the core. It's an illusion. Sometimes pretty good, sometimes awful, but it's doesn't have the proper mood, because the original story was killed, and the movie budget was low. Period.


I still think it was stupid how the Hell Knight cut through the steel door blocking the ark, with a chain saw though...


Well, since this was a result of some genetic experiment... what do you expect? I wasn't surprised to see those stupid tongues in imps, they are not Doom creatures although they look like them. And since they aren't genuine Doom creatures - do not expect Doom-like behavior from them.


Also what's the name of the actor that played Lord Marshal?
He was cool too & just perfect for the Riddick Universe. I don't recall him in any other movie though...

Colm Feore (http://imdb.com/name/nm0272173/)

I don't remember him too, he's not such a charismatic and rememberable character as Vaako, Reaper, Riddick and guys of that calibre. His Lord Marshal character was quite good tho, but I liked Vaako and Riddick much more :-)