Doom

A film version of Ms. Pac-Man couldn't be any more or less suited to the big screen than a movie version of Doom. And yet here's another based-on-a-videogame flick that's nothing but a half-assed retread of Aliens. Andzej Bartkowiak's Doom takes way too long for Sarge's (The Rock) Marine grunts to start dying in interesting or even disgusting ways at the hands of the weird mutant creatures running around loose on Mars' Olduvai Research Station, where the guys have been sent to find out what the hell happened to the research team. Although it tries to be a little bit deeper than your typical first-person-shooter movie, Doom just doesn't know what to do with itself when it attempts to get all serious and meaningful, throwing some pseudo-ethical battlefield dilemmas at Sarge and soldier John Grimm (Karl Urban), before retreating back to the straight-ahead action. Not recommended. [Note: Available in either unrated widescreen or full screen versions, or a R rated full screen version, DVD extras include a 15-minute “Doom Nation” featurette on the popular videogame series (which inspired the film), a “Basic Training” featurette on the cast training with the SAS (11 min.), “Master Monster Makers” (11 min.), a “Game On” featurette on the videogame Doom 3 (7 min.), a “Rock Formation” makeup segment featuring costar The Rock (6 min.), the “making-of” the first-person shooter sequence (6 min.), a Doom 3 Xbox videogame demo level, and trailers. Bottom line: a decent extras package for a very run of the mill videogame adaptation.] (M. Johanson)[Blu-ray Review—Mar. 3, 2009—Universal, 113 min., not rated, $29.98—Making its first appearance on Blu-ray, 2005's Doom sports an excellent transfer with DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound. Blu-ray extras are nearly identical to those on the standard DVD release, including a 15-minute “Doom Nation” featurette on the popular videogame series that inspired the film, a “Basic Training” featurette on the cast training with the SAS military experts (11 min.), a “Master Monster Makers” effects featurette (11 min.), a “Game On” featurette on the videogame Doom 3 (7 min.), a “Rock Formation” makeup segment (6 min.), the “making-of” the first-person shooter sequence (6 min.), and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release is the BD Live function (missing is the now dated Doom 3 Xbox videogame demo level). Bottom line: better looking, yes; better film, no.]