Reviewed by Johnny McNair

Universal Studios Home Entertainment – 113 mins – 2005 – Unrated – 1080p Widescreen 2.35: 1 – DTS-HD Lossless Master 5.1 Audio

Without a doubt, Doom is one of the most played games of all time, and the videogame industry owes so much to the success of it, because it made people want to play more games. Games don’t translate into very well into motion pictures, so when a big screen version of the game was announced, many were skeptic. Being that the end result was a lame movie with the Doom logo on it, those naysayers were right. Doom the movie makes a leap onto Blu-ray from Universal Studios Home Entertainment, but lower your expectations as far as they can go.

THE MOVIE

Doom starts of with the copycat bug immediately ripping off everything from James Cameron’s Aliens, with the now cliché pack of space military soldiers who must venture to another planet to find out what happened to the last team that was sent down and are now M.I.A.

The film stars The Rock and Karl Urban, along with a miscellanious cast of faces that are basically just there to scream and die. Doom the game grabbed players with it’s mix of horror and action, but the movie never makes of clear what it’s trying to be. Is it camp or is it supposed to be hardcore?

The Rock who has pulled off the action hero checklist in other popcorn films such as The Scorpion King, really looks as if he’d rather be in another movie. And the rest of the cast is just hitting their marks and saying their lines.

Director Andrzej Bartkowiak seems to have been so desperate to win the approval of fans of the game that he threw in a five minute long first person shooting sequence to emulate the game. What was supposed to have been a crowd pleasure turns out to be a laugh a minute low down shame.

Doom looks like a made for the Sci-Fi Channel original movie, with bad sets, terrible creatures and amateurish special effects. Just because something is successful in one form means that it will carry over to another form chasing the same audience. Doom proves this big time. If you want the true Doom experience, crank up your PC and play the classic game the way it was meant to be.

VIDEO

Presented in full 1080p in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, Doom is a let down. Universal Blu-rays always look great but something went wrong here, because the image quality is only a small upgrade from the DVD, with heavy grain and uneven sharpness.

AUDIO

The sound is a step up from the image, with a DTS-HD 5.1 master audio mix that is worthy of pumping up your surround sound system. When the action heats up you’ll hear bullets and screams all around you, but it still can’t save this bad movie.

EXTRAS

There’s not much here, just some basic cut and paste supplemental material. There’s not even a director’s commentary to explain this mess.

Basic Training looks at the pre-production training the actor’s went through to get combat ready.

Rock Formation shows what went into transforming The Rock into the monstrous bad guy in the finale.

Master Monster Makers takes a look at the film’s creature design.

First Person Shooter displays how the movie’s FPS sequence was shot.

Game On shows play-by-play strategies and tips for Doom 3.

Doom Nation is probably the only worthy feature on the disc, going into the history of the game and it’s sequels, including interviews with the game’s creator John Carmack.

BOTTOM LINE

Doom is a great game, but a bad movie. This Blu-ray is only recommended to die hard fans, because it’s a rental at best. To put it simply skip this flick and play the game instead.

SCORES (Out of 5):

The Movie: 2.0

Video: 3.0

Sound: 3.5

Extras: 2.5

Bottom Line: 2.5