Doom (***)

This wasn’t a movie I expected to like. There have been a couple of decent video game-to-film adaptations, like Final Fantasy, but Doom was better known for its trend-setting violence than memorable characters or scenario. What this movie has to do with the game is best debated by people who’ve played it, but even if the title is mostly a marketing gimmick, it’s a gimmick for a movie that actually turns out to have a reasonable story. (The body count isn’t even that high, perhaps disappointing some of the target audience.) The movie (and its promotion) makes a big deal about its “BFG,” where the B and G stand for “big” and “gun,” but the gunplay is not particularly impressive or emphasized. The Rock plays the leader of a platoon sent to Mars to help figure out and/or contain a genetic experiment gone wrong. Much of the action is set in an underground bunker whose salient feature is visible piping. (Rosamund Pike of Die Another Day plays the lead scientist there.) While it’s true that all genetic experiments in sci-fi movies must go wrong, the unoriginal premise leads to actual suspense and occasional surprise

IMDb link

circulated via email 10/27/05 and posted 10/18/13