Doom User Reviews

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I had watched Doom once before and thought it was bad, but not too bad. In retrospect I was wrong, for after viewing it again I realize that Doom is, in fact, quite terrible. The film had serious problems that somehow flew under my radar before.

All the problems stem from the story. The plot is terrible -- rote, played out, and obvious -- and the script is worse. It is full of things people think Marines say and do. Of course, all these misconceptions are gross and baseless. The characters are very, very bad. I suppose the primary problem stems from the fact that none of the characters here are likable. All of the Marines, save for the two main characters, are blockheads and dickheads; idiots and jerks. By in large the acting is absurdly bad. Rosamund Pike and Karl Urban’s accents waver in and out frenetically. But Dwayne Johnson does stand out. He’s good at being angry, a skill probably stemming from his time in the WWF/WWE. But everybody else is terrible. Both Pike and Urban only pretend like they’re acting. With about twenty-five minutes left the film becomes viciously stupid. The first-person sequence at the end, constituting nothing more than a shooting gallery, is of unparalleled inanity. As if such criticism is not enough, the film just isn’t well shot. The cameras are stiflingly close. There’s something to be said about creating a claustrophobic environment, but get too close and it becomes wrought and has the opposite effect. I’m just surprised that the film even managed to happen; how it held itself together is well beyond me.

Amazingly, for an action film Doom is completely barren. It’s utterly unentertaining. There is no value or merit here. This film is a nullity. No one could get anything out of watching it.