Thanks to the excellent Doom game of 2016, the name Doom means something again. While fans simply loved the games from the 90s (and casually ignored Doom 3 for the most part) the newest game revived the FPS franchise and made people excited about Doom again. Doom: Eternal, the sequel to the hit game that brought the series back to life, is due out sometime this year. But it also looks like Doom is getting another entry this year as well, only this one is going to the theaters.
Or perhaps straight to DVD. Hard to tell.
Doom: Annihilation is the newest movie that will attempt to distill the chaos of the first person shooter for the big screen. The trailer just came out and shows off what we can expect from this piece of cinema.
So there's definitely some elements of Doom in this trailer. We got marines with massive guns, we got giant monsters, we got scientists that obviously done messed up and opened a portal to Hell. Also most of the effects (in the trailer at least) seem to be practical, with some nice monster makeup and big ol' prop guns.
But the whole production does come off as a little cheap. The cast is a who's who of "who's that?" The most notable actor is Amy Manson from the TV show Torchwood and T2: Trainspotting. She plays the main character Joan Dark, which is just about the worst attempt at an "edgy" name for a Doom protagonist.
Unless this is supposed to be a Perfect Dark crossover, and then maybe it could jumpstart a cinematic universe of classic FPS characters. This could be the way we get a Wolfenstein movie, and if that's the case you gotta go Aaron Eckhart for BJ Blazkowicz. You just gotta.
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The trailer is full of sci fi cheese and cliche moments. And the tag lines peppered throughout don't help, with lines like "Your Mission: DON'T DIE" and the groan worthy "It's Not A Game Anymore". For some reason whenever a video game is made into a movie they feel like they need to remind everyone that what they're watching is no longer a video game. Why they do this is baffling. It's not like when they adapt a book into a film the trailer screams "You're Not At The Library Anymore Gramps!"
Overall the trailer isn't great, and isn't a good representation of what this movie might be or what a proper Doom movie could be. Everything from the acting to the action to the sets seem like minimal effort and budget was put into this. Although Manson does let off a Reaper worthy scream of "DIE DIE DIE". So there's that at least.
Doom is a hard game to turn into a summer blockbuster. It's essentially about a nameless soldier with basically no personality outside of "I don't like demons and I enjoy ripping out their spines" going around Hell and pulverizing things with a bazooka that shoots green laser balls. There's usually not a lot of plot. And Hollywood has already struck out once before with Doom in 2005, so why someone would take another crack at a Doom movie is puzzling. Even the charisma of The Rock couldn't save that movie, and if The Rock can't save you then nothing can.
Although it did have this first person scene, which was kinda rad.
It doesn't look like Doom: Annihilation is going to break the streak of bad video game movies. It's possible that this is just a poorly edited trailer that doesn't show off the good parts of this film, and it may surprise everyone. But there's probably a better chance of getting some enjoyment out of Detective Pikachu when it comes out this May.
Oh and remember, Doom: Eternal is still coming out this year. So there should be at least one good Doom release in 2019.