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Doom
This video game inspired movie works like so many of them and misses pulling off anything all that exciting. There is a problem inherent with video game films, and that is what may be a solid plot in a video game isn't a good plot in a film. They are just too different animals to be able to be meshed all that well.
The basic idea for the story is that an artifact is found which allows people on Earth to travel to Mars to a secret underground city. There is a research facility set up on that planet which eventually runs into a problem, which for better lack of terms, turns into a zombie problem. After that, the story consists basically of running around and shooting anything and everything that moves that isn't you, or related to you. It basically is a story that has been done before with Resident Evil and the one part of non-action story that it does have, is fairly quickly glossed over and never makes a real impact as to what is going on in the film. I didn't come into it expecting for it to have a good story, and I wasn't surprised.
Visually this film tries to do something "special" by having part of it shot as a video game. It is shot in the style of a first person shooter with the zombies, for lack of better term, jumping up and the person shooting them. This style fails pretty miserably. It looks very amateurish and just doesn't add anything to the story by being shot that way. It actually hinders the film as it looks like something that any kid with a camcorder would try and shoot, and probably already has shot. It works a little bit as an homage to the game, but not enough to make it worthwhile to have in the film. Otherwise the film is basically shot like any other horror film. They like lots of fairly cramped dark spaces where the monsters can jump out of and attack the people. It really doesn't add anything to the horror genre in how it was shot. It basically sticks to the same old conventions.
Acting in this film was very average as well. Dwayne Johnson and Karl Urban both do a decent job in their acting roles. They come off as action actors in the film that struggle at times, especially in Urban's case, with any scene that is more serious and emotional. Dwayne Johnson wasn't really given a chance to struggle as he wasn't given any of that sort of role, even though he has shown in some of his other films that he can do more then purely work on action films. The rest of the cast was pretty below average in their acting. The rest of the team that gets sent to Mars, which Johnson and Urban's characters are on, does a very poor job in their acting, and Rosamund Pike does a fine job playing Karl Urban's sister, but it isn't a role that surpasses the more then average acting found in this film.
Overall it is basically what I expected it to be. If you are looking for a very mindless action film to watch, this film can fit the bill. There is some decent action in parts to it. I can't really recommend the movie for anything more then that, and there are definitely better purely action films out there.
Overall Grade: D+
Story: D
Acting: C-
Audio/Visual: C-
This video game inspired movie works like so many of them and misses pulling off anything all that exciting. There is a problem inherent with video game films, and that is what may be a solid plot in a video game isn't a good plot in a film. They are just too different animals to be able to be meshed all that well.
The basic idea for the story is that an artifact is found which allows people on Earth to travel to Mars to a secret underground city. There is a research facility set up on that planet which eventually runs into a problem, which for better lack of terms, turns into a zombie problem. After that, the story consists basically of running around and shooting anything and everything that moves that isn't you, or related to you. It basically is a story that has been done before with Resident Evil and the one part of non-action story that it does have, is fairly quickly glossed over and never makes a real impact as to what is going on in the film. I didn't come into it expecting for it to have a good story, and I wasn't surprised.
Visually this film tries to do something "special" by having part of it shot as a video game. It is shot in the style of a first person shooter with the zombies, for lack of better term, jumping up and the person shooting them. This style fails pretty miserably. It looks very amateurish and just doesn't add anything to the story by being shot that way. It actually hinders the film as it looks like something that any kid with a camcorder would try and shoot, and probably already has shot. It works a little bit as an homage to the game, but not enough to make it worthwhile to have in the film. Otherwise the film is basically shot like any other horror film. They like lots of fairly cramped dark spaces where the monsters can jump out of and attack the people. It really doesn't add anything to the horror genre in how it was shot. It basically sticks to the same old conventions.
Acting in this film was very average as well. Dwayne Johnson and Karl Urban both do a decent job in their acting roles. They come off as action actors in the film that struggle at times, especially in Urban's case, with any scene that is more serious and emotional. Dwayne Johnson wasn't really given a chance to struggle as he wasn't given any of that sort of role, even though he has shown in some of his other films that he can do more then purely work on action films. The rest of the cast was pretty below average in their acting. The rest of the team that gets sent to Mars, which Johnson and Urban's characters are on, does a very poor job in their acting, and Rosamund Pike does a fine job playing Karl Urban's sister, but it isn't a role that surpasses the more then average acting found in this film.
Overall it is basically what I expected it to be. If you are looking for a very mindless action film to watch, this film can fit the bill. There is some decent action in parts to it. I can't really recommend the movie for anything more then that, and there are definitely better purely action films out there.
Overall Grade: D+
Story: D
Acting: C-
Audio/Visual: C-