Review of Doom (2005) by Joed. — 21 Oct 2005

A recent NY Times review called this movie "really just a formulaic shoot'em-up, with dead bodies amassing on the floor of an underground Martian laboratory". Wasn't that most of what the game itself was? For those looking for a best picture nominee, don't waste your time with this movie; however that was clearly not its intention.

This movie was made as a tribute to the grandaddy of one of the most popular game genres of all time, first person shooters, and Doom the game has been copied and mimicked in games more than Star Wars has in movies.

So for those critics that watched this movie expecting an Oscar-worthy performance from the rock, try first looking at the source of this movie, the game itself, which was exactly what every FPS fan loved, and exactly what you'll find in this movie, nothing but a shoot 'em up.

By the way I personally think Karl Urban did a great job in this movie, and my personal complaint would be that he should have taken more of a larger role in the script of the movie. If you are looking for a real heartwarming movie, this is a tribute to a gory video game; if you are looking for a recreation of a video game, this is limited by the fact that it is just a movie.

With the understanding of the difficulties the director had in this balancing act, I was still very much entertained and would recommend it to any FPS fan.