On the Big Board |
| Position |
Staff |
In Brief |
| 68/166 |
David Mumpower |
As a lifelong fan of the videogame, I was braced for the worst but came out slightly mollified. As far as generic action films go, you could do much worse. |
| 76/85 |
Kim Hollis |
The Rock is in it. I like The Rock. |
This is a new assignment. You’ve been transferred to the Union Aerospace Corporation’s futuristic military base on Mars. And it’s an unpopular one at that. Nobody else wants to go there since this base is infamous for its scientific experiments that push the boundaries of space and time. Thank God you’re not afraid of anything.
Or so you thought.
Even the bravest of heroes would do a doubletake at some of the sights you have recently beheld.
The troubles began when one of those tests created a bit of a problem. A failed experiment of mad science opened a gateway to Hell, as is wont to happen on Martian outposts. As the new guy, it’s your responsibility to clean up this mess. And that’s the good news. The bad news is that every other soldier on the base has been transmogrified into some form of zombie state. Your co-workers not only hate you now, they also want to slay you and eat your brains. Thank God you’re not the sensitive type.
That brings us to sunny point number two. There are other creatures using the gateway to cross over from the abyss into our world. These imps, demons, specters, lost souls, pain elementals, cacodemons, revenants, mancubi, archviles, barons of hell and hell knights are devastating fighters. Thank God you’re a badass.
Of course, even your skills will be gravely tested here. Some of the darker realms of the juxtaposed military installation/Hell include Arachnotrons, Spider Masterminds and Cyberdemons. The combination of Hell-beasts forcibly integrated with high tech weaponry has created the most devastating horror show beast compendium humanity has ever faced. That Cyberdemon has a freakin’ rocket launcher where his arm should be! Thank God you’ve got a ton of artillery at your disposal.
Oh, wait. All the artillery in your possession at the start is a handgun. This serves as little more than a ticklish pea shooter to the monsters overwhelming your fort. You need to find weaponry and you need to do it fast. Otherwise, you’re a demonic snack as the hellions creep over into our world and plan their assault upon mankind. Thank God you remember where a BFG 9000 is. You’re going to need that Big Fucking Gun.
Doom is arguably the most historically important videogame of the past two decades. The code wizards at id Software created the first person shooter and in the process accidentally demonstrated the genius of multi-player artillery combat to an entire generation of video-gamers. The game’s legacy and extraordinarily high recognition factor made it a natural fit for a theatrical adaptation.
The project has been rumored for the better part of a decade now, but Warner Bros. recently lost rights to it. Their failure to greenlight it within the designated period of time created an opportunity for another enterprising group. Universal Studios swooped in and grabbed rights. Unlike their counterparts, Universal is in a rush to get this movie made. They have already scheduled production to begin in Winter 2004/2005 in Prague. There has been no one confirmed yet as a writer or director. Despite this lack of details, rising action star The Rock recently surprised many by stating in an interview that this might be his next project instead of the previously scheduled John Woo film, Spy Hunter. He indicates that the story based on the recently released Doom 3 would allow him to play the ultimate badass. This comment alone is reason enough to realize that The Rock is both familiar with the videogames and understands how spectacular a Doom movie could be.
Ironically enough, the launch of the Doom franchise has eerily mirrored the releases of most id Software games. The software group notorious for their extended delays coined the phrase “when it’s done” to explain these problems with maintaining a release date (or even a release year). The Doom movie has been hanging around the fringe of Hollywood productions for a while now but has largely been considered to be the theatrical equivalent of vaporware. Much like Doom 3 itself, the movie suddenly looks much more likely to be a box office reality (and a dominant one at that) than a few pages of Internet hype. (David Mumpower/BOP)
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