Doom (film)

Doom
File:Doom poster.jpg
Directed by	Andrzej Bartkowiak
Written by	Dave Callaham Wesley Strick
Produced by	Laura Holstein John D. Schofield Jeremy Steckler John Wells (Executive Producer)
Starring	The Rock Karl Urban Rosamund Pike
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Running time	1 hour 38 minutes
Budget	$70,000,000

Doom is a 2005 movie adaptation of the popular Doom series of video games produced by id Software. The movie was released October 21 2005 in the United States, and on December 2 2005 in the United Kingdom.

A movie based on the series has been widely expected since the first game's original release in 1993. In 1994 or 1995, id Software sold Doom movie rights to two movie studios, reportedly Universal Pictures and Columbia Pictures, but the rights expired apparently due to a lack of timely production. For the next eight or nine years, the movie project lingered in development hell. In 2002, it was reported that Warner Brothers acquired live action movie rights to Doom from id Software. Sometime in 2003, Warner Brothers lost the rights, and they were subsequently given to Universal Pictures; Universal got the movie moved into production in 2004.

There has been a lot of criticism offered against the movie on message boards. For instance, on movie review websites such as the Internet Movie Database, many claim that this movie has failed, just like, in their opinion, all other video game to movie translations. This is because Hollywood's attempts to give video games more mainstream appeal usually backfire, through excessive "watering down," abbreviation, or unwarranted "enhancements." Thusfar, such criticism has been arguably substantive, for the movie omits or redefines traditional supernatural themes with purely secular themes, such as genetic experimentation and psychological evolution, which has led many fan to liken the plot as "Resident Evil in space". Many speculate that these changes, ordered by certain executives at Universal, are due to fear of possible negative reactions by the public, especially from Christian groups. But, as with the release of Doom 3, the controversy over this movie will remain, especially between hardcore and casual Doom fans.

In a recent interview with executive producer John Wells, he stated that a second Doom movie could be created if the first is a success in the box office. Ticket sales for the opening weekend totaled more than 15.3 million USD, but promptly dropped down to approximately $4.2 million, which mystified Universal executives.

The basic plot of the movie is quite similar to Aliens in that a small group of space marines go to investigate a deserted facility on another planet, and do battle with vicious creatures until only a few are left who must fight to escape alive.

The film has been rated R by the MPAA for strong violence/gore and language.

Plot overview

The film begins on Earth, when a team of elite Marines are deployed to Mars, through the teleportation device called the "Ark." Their mission is simple: is to investigate a disturbance occurring at the Union Aerospace Corporation's (UAC) Mars research facility. However, this simple mission becomes more complicated when the team finds Dr. Carmack, who is disturbed to the point of tearing off his own ear. The Marines continue to explore the facility, encountering strange creatures intent on killing them. One such being, an "imp," succeeds in slaying one of the soldiers, but is promptly captured and returned to Dr. Grimm, a researcher seeking scientific data. From blood samples from a group of hostile creatures, it is determined that their genetic makeup has been altered by the addition of a 24th chromosome, which turns humans into a "superman" or a "monster," depending on if one is "good" or "evil". Consequently, this chromosome is classified as an "infection," which is spread by the projectile tongues of those infected.

Through multiple attacks by the imps, the troop is reduced to four members: Sarge, Reaper (brother of Dr. Grimm), The Kid, and Duke, along with Dr. Grimm. Further, they realize that, despite their best efforts, a larger imp (presumed to be the original) escapes to Earth through the "Ark." However, before leaving, Sarge takes the Bio Force Gun (BFG) and Dr. Grimm brings a sample of the Chromosone 24 serum. Further, it is revealed that the researchers unintentionally created the imps by giving a human some of the serum, which was extracted from the remains of an ancient alien civilization on Mars.

On Earth, the group finds the UAC facility full of bodies, thereby causing Sarge to order that all corpses be shot to prevent any from rising. But, the Kid finds a group of living, non-infected humans and reports this to Sarge. He argues that the order should be rescinded, but Sarge responds by shooting him for insubordination. The group continues through the facility, until Duke is killed during a major assault by zombies. In addition to Duke's death, Reaper is hit by a rebounding bullet. Consequently, to save his life, Dr. Grimm gives Reaper some of the serum. This turns him into a "superman," thereby healing him almost instantaenously, while endowing him with incredible strength and speed.

Following Reaper's change, the movie takes on its first-person shooter perspective strongly resembling Doom 3 in terms of environment, creatures and gameplay.

In the words of Karl Urban, protagonist of Reaper:

"In some ways, it makes cinematic history in that, for the first time, the audience becomes the hero of the film."

"When we go into FPS, the audience is doing the rampage, the audience is doing the work and that is so cool. It’s insane!"

While slaying the remaining monsters, Reaper is attacked by Pinky, a former UAC Ark attendant and cyborg, whose bottom half of his body was replaced by robotics and wheels. However, Reaper successfuly uses the iconic chainsaw to defeat him. At the exit of the facility, Reaper finds a large mass of bodies and a hole in the wall, which was caused by a BFG blast. Near this hole, Reaper encounters Dr. Grimm and Sarge, with Sarge holding Dr. Grimm hostage. After Dr. Grimm escapes Sarge's clutches, the two Marines face off, with Reaper dodging a BFG shot and engaging Sarge in fisticuffs. Reaper prevails by throwing the now-demonic Sarge into the "Ark," along with a hand grenade, sealing the fate of both Sarge and the UAC Mars facility.

Trivia

• id Software has been heavily involved in the movie's production and development from the very start. They reviewed the script that was used in the movie and approved it.
• One of the weapons present in the movie is an earlier model of the BFG9000 (renamed the "Bio Force Gun" for the movie, though Sarge does state that it is a "Big Fucking Gun," this weapon has been a staple in the Doom series).
• In the movie Sarge uses the hand of a dead scientist called Patricia Tallman to get access to the BFG. Patricia Tallman is also the name of an actor that played the role as Lyta Alexander in the science fiction series Babylon 5. Her character played a key role as a telepathic weapon in fighting an enemy called the Shadows whose homeworld was Za'ha'dum (pronounced doom).
• The Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC) from the games is also featured in the movie.
• Many monsters from the computer games make appearances in the film, including a Pinky Demon, a Baron of Hell, a Hell Knight, several Imps, and many Zombies. A Cacodemon was planned for, but ultimately cut from, the final film.
• There is a single 5-minute sequence in the film that was shot entirely in the first-person perspective, emulating the look of the games.
• The origin of the creatures is now different from the Doom games, rather than coming from Hell, the monsters are created through gene therapy by the UAC which mutates humans.
• A 1 minute 57 second theatrical trailer was released by Universal Pictures for the Doom movie, available on the official Doom movie website. It reveals that Olduvai station is a Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC) research facility located on Mars, but does not mention teleportation research. Instead, the trailer explicitly mentions genomic research, possibly belying the claim of a hellish origin for the monsters. It should be noted, however, that genomic research was mentioned as being conducted upon demons in Doom 3.
• Karl Urban's character, John "Reaper" Grimm is the "Doomguy" from the games.
• One of the Mars scientists are named Dr. Carmack, and another is named Dr. Willits, references to id Software staff John Carmack, and Tim Willits respectively.
• As of 2005, this is the first R rated film that The Rock has starred in.
• The elevator used to end the Doom levels, was also used to enter the Ark at the starting of the movie and also in the ending.
• The sounds that hums when a door has been opened in Doom Titles, were also used in this movie.
• The classic theme of Doom game, was used in the 5min First Person View played in the background, but was a remix into a more Heavy-Metal feel like.

Wells admitted in the interview that "many" video game movie adaptations had "sucked." He had revealed that the crew was able to get "a lot of financial support from Universal" and that it wasn't "done on the cheap." Wells also revealed that the Doom movie must have something shot in the first person because "Doom without that would be a miscarriage of justice!"

Wells also revealed that "we were all very concerned that we make sure that it was exactly the kind of experience that we [the crew] remembered so fondly from the game: turning the lights off at midnight, cranking it up and scaring the hell out of yourself!"

Wells also revealed that there is a balance between CGI and prosthetics in the Doom movie, and he, for the first time as a producer, admitted that "we didn't wanna rely on the CGI. Those effects still haven't quite got to the level where you fully believe it - certainly not for long periods of time," and that the crew used Stan Winston's Creature Shop and that his work is only "enhanced with CGI." He also admitted that "if you rely too much on CGI it can look cheesy: it doesn't quite work. It'll get there, but it's not there yet."

Wells also stated that the crew insisted that the Doom movie be made into an R-rated movie and that he didn't "think it was possible to do a PG-13 version — and that's been the mistake made by a couple of other computer game movies," and that "a lot of studios that didn't want to do it. But we made a conscious decision that we'd prefer not to make it any other way."

Wells also revealed that if this first Doom movie is successful, a second one could be made, and he revealed that "we certainly have some ideas for the next one, if there is gonna be one. We'll have to wait and see: the audience will have to tell us..."

Criticisms

These topics have been severely criticized by most who have played the Doom games or know about the Doom games:

• The origin of the 'demons' is no longer Hell, and there are no confirmations that Hell itself exists. The monsters were created from gene therapy - Although to it's credit, whether a test subject becomes a monster or evolves to a superhuman being actually depends on whether he is good or evil (still a ludicrous concept however).
• Iconic weaponry such as the BFG, chaingun and the chainsaw are not used much. The BFG fires only 3 shots (one of which is off camera), the chaingun fires for about 10 seconds in the movie, and the chainsaw is only used for one scene. A shotgun and what appears to be a plasma rifle appear, but are never fired. Also, the explosion of a BFG round appeared more like a giant ball of corrosive mucus, rather than a massive green explosion as in the games.
• The monsters themselves-it was expected the zombies would be carrying guns, the Imps and Hell Knights to throw balls of energy, and that the other monsters in the game would have appeared.
• The first-person sequence is only 5 minutes long.
• Cliched characters and cheap dialogue. Only John "Reaper" Grimm (a.k.a. the "Doomguy") was a likable character.

Production history

File:Doom4.jpg

The Doom movie logo.

• November 27 2003, Computer Gaming World printed an article on their website regarding the Doom movie. It states that Warner Brothers is indeed working on the Doom movie and has placed it on the fast track. A revised script was submitted to id Software and approved; John Wells (producer of ER) and Lorenzo Bonaventura (who introduced The Matrix to Warner Brothers) have signed on to work on the Doom movie. Concept art and storyboards have been drawn by Federico D'Alessandro, who has worked on various movies, music videos, and video game covers and advertisements.
• May 15 2004, the Associated Press (AP) released a news article regarding video game to movie adaptations that can be found here: Hollywood Interest in Video Games Grows that mentions the Doom movie. Here's an excerpt that mentions the Doom movie: "Soon, more blockbuster game franchises, such as Halo and Doom, are expected to become the basis of movies."
• June 2 2004, Variety reported that Warner Brothers has lost the rights to the Doom movie and Universal Studios has acquired rights to the Doom movie and Variety confirms that the Doom movie will be based on Doom 3.
• June 4 2004, IMDb Pro reported that Warner Brothers has lost the rights to the Doom movie and that Universal Studios has picked up the rights also that Enda McCallion has been signed on as the director.
• August 9 2004, A Doom 3 article in an issue of Time Magazine mentions that Universal is set to film the Doom movie in Prague in the winter of 2004-2005.
• August 15 2004, The Hollywood Reporter reported that John Wells Productions is currently in pre-production for the Doom movie.
• August 18 2004, a website, Box Office Prophets, made the Doom movie project their movie of the day and they list the release date for the Doom movie, August 5 2005. The article also confirms that Universal has Doom on a production schedule of Winter 2004-2005 in Prague´s Barrandov Studios. The article can be found here: Doom. The planned release date was mentioned as August 5 2005.
• August 10 2004, The Hollywood Reporter released an article that mentioned release dates for 8 movies and the third movie listed was the Doom movie. It states that Doom will have a wide release on August 5 2005.
• September 15 2004, major news has been revealed by both Variety and The Hollywood Reporter on the Doom movie. Karl Urban has been cast for the Doom movie as the star, John Grimm, a leader of a special ops team. It has been revealed that he will dealing not only with alien demons but also the organization known as the United Aerospace Corp. that is responsible for the death of his parents. It's also been revealed that Enda McCallion has dropped out of the project and Polish director Andrzej Bartkowiak has signed on to be the director. It's also been revealed that production will start in Mid-October with a August 5 2005 release date. Also noted is that Universal Pictures is talking to The Rock regarding a role in the Doom movie.
• September 22 2004, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Universal Pictures has cast Rosamund Pike opposite of Karl Urban as a scientist named Samantha.^[1]

Notes

1. ^ "'Doom's' day for Pike with Universal Pics". September 22 2004. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |org= ignored (help)

External links

• Doom at IMDb
• Official site
• Movie Trailer
• Doom @ the SoundtrackINFO project
• A report from Comic-Con with information from a panel of the cast and crew
• An Interview with Karl Urban about the film
• An Interview with Doom Executive Producer John Wells