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Doom (2005)

Director: Andrzej Bartkowiak

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From Time Out London

‘Doom’ revolutionised the videogame industry when it was released in 1993, combining innovative first-person shoot-em-up gameplay with moments of genuine tension and horror. Unfortunately, ‘Doom’ the movie is little more than a derivative action pic that apes the likes of ‘Aliens’ and ‘Predator’ in forgettable and reductive fashion.

The plot revolves around a crack army unit sent through a portal to a Martian research facility where unspeakable horrors are taking place. Trouble is, said squad are personality-free grunts with little character or back story, so it’s impossible to form any kind of emotional attachment to them. Even the relatively charismatic Rock struggles to make much of an impression; when the boys start popping their clogs, it’s increasingly difficult to care.

As the film progresses, the guns get bigger and the deaths gorier, but director Andrzej Bartkowiak fails to crank up the suspense with anything like the same kind of intensity. The result is a solid, streamlined action pic, though one can’t help feeling we’ve seen it (or played it) all before.

Author: CT 2005-11-28 16:28:34

Time Out London Issue 1841: November 30-December 7 2005