What makes DOOM one of the most recognizable video game sagas in the world? In the absence of a universal answer, you could almost say that it is his way of challenging the player to turn hell itself upside down . The feeling you get from annihilating and blowing up waves of demons in the first person.
Which makes the intense action and shooting proposal of the DOOM saga radiate its own character beyond the screen of our PC or console. Enough to be taken to the big screen?
Released in 2005, the film DOOM by director Andrzej Bartkowiak rests one foot on the third installment of the saga and the other on practically all the topics of action, horror and science fiction films.
And despite the fact that – at least for those who occupy the seats – those well-combined ingredients should become a success, the reality is that the final result does not have much to do with that mythical FPS that blew our minds in 1993 and its highly celebrated sequel.
It is not that Bartkowiak has not been interested in forging concrete ties with id Software video games. In fact, it seems that on the editing table from which the DOOM movie was edited, someone had prominently placed a Post-it that remembered to wink or an Easter Egg every ten minutes.
However, as the footage itself progresses, one ends up realizing the failure: instead of having brought the Doomguy to the big screen to quench his thirst for blood, the producers and writers at Universal Pictures interpreted the iD Software game as if it were a generic survival horror set in space. Giving that treatment to the film itself. Big mistake.
The challenge of bringing DOOM to the big screen
Universal is, along with Sony Pictures and FOX , one of the companies that has devoted the most to adapting video games to the big screen. In fact, its alliance with Nintendo means that we still have a margin of confidence in it. However, the only thing we can say that DOOM contributed to the history of cinema and video games was to serve as a means for Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson to gain tables and minutes on screen.
Now, before getting into the mud, it deserves to be put in context: after the release of DOOM 3 in 2003, and after several failed attempts by different Hollywood studios, Universal Pictures obtained back the film rights to the series of iD Software.
Although, to be fair, the Texas-based studio was the most interested in bringing its game to theaters.
In general, adapting a video game to the big screen is a double-edged sword : on the one hand, it has the advantage that it generates special interest for the premiere. On the other, adapting an interactive experience to a purely contemplative environment is challenging . Above all, when that experience in question is based on destroying everything that is ahead in the first person.
Several screenwriters worked on the DOOM film adaptation when the popularity of the original first installment exploded. It was even speculated that Arnold Schwarzenegger himself became linked to the project. The reality is that, after several changes of hands and already into the new millennium, Universal decided to take the initiative by taking advantage of the slipstream generated by DOOM 3.
The challenge now was how to adapt the video game and, as we have seen so many times, with very few exceptions, movies based on characters and video game heroes used to be, to say the least, disappointing.
- To which we must add two great challenges: transferring the brutality and chaos of DOOM to a Made in Hollywood script, despite being the meat of a Series B movie (at best).
- And, in the process, giving some narrative sense to an experience in which there is a plot plot, but it is not its maximum claim.
Under those premises, an estimated budget of $ 60 million, too many elements borrowed from the Alien and Predator sagas, and with a cast of the caliber of Dwayne Johnson , Karl Urban (Lord of the Rings, Dredd) and Rosamund Pike (Jack Reacher). , Pride and Prejudice), the DOOM phenomenon hit the billboards.
A demonic power begins to emerge from Mars
We are in the year 2046 . Twenty years ago, a mysterious interplanetary bridge discovered in the Nevada desert allowed humanity to travel to the planet Mars to study its properties.
Today, scientists who scrutinize the secrets of the reddish planet are in danger: brutal bloodthirsty creatures have begun to appear on the premises. Demonic-looking beings that savagely devour any living soul they come across.
Faced with the situation, Earth decides to send a squad of marines with the purpose of discovering what is happening, preventing that evil from spreading beyond Mars. And, in the process, rescue all the work obtained during the investigation.
Sergeant Asher ‘Sarge’ Mahonin (Dwayne Johnson) leads the group of suitably armed Marines. Elite veterans among whom is John ‘Reaper’ Grimm , the twin brother of one of the scientists who is in the facilities of Mars. Ahead, a series of labyrinthine and dimly lit corridors, rooms full of experiments and lots of explosive material.
DOOM is a particularly irregularly paced film whose greatest sin is offering the viewer the feeling that everything that appears throughout its 105 minutes has already been seen in too many small- and large-budget productions. Not to contribute too much either at the plot level or aesthetically.
Trying to replicate Alien’s sense of spatial isolation -failing in the attempt- and putting on the table absolutely all the cliches of war cinema , including some forced moral conflicts and, of course, the most elementary character archetypes, including the novice, the loose cannon or the fanatic who speaks what is just and necessary.
The good, the bad and the worst of the DOOM movie
And what does that have to do with video games? Well, there are nods and references to the id Software saga, but to be fair, the plot scheme is much closer to games like Resident Evil and most of the Survival Horrors of the time.
Trying to convey the feeling of investigating dark environments with a firearm in hand, knowing that at any minute a bug can jump from the shadows. Something that, by the way, has little or nothing to do with the most celebrated installments of DOOM, despite going very in parallel with the questioned twist of the third installment.
Throughout the film, up to three types of FPS-based creatures are exhibited: Imps, Hell Barons, and Zombies. Even a Pinky appears when the time comes. Universal created most of these creatures out of costumes and practical effects , limiting digital shots to just enough.
And yet they barely spend screen time. With which most of the film we will see the Marines wandering through narrow and dark corridors. Another big mistake. However, Andrzej Bartkowiak reserves in the last act of the film about five minutes of pure first-person action .
The scene shot from the shooter’s perspective is possibly the only part of the footage that attempts to reflect the game on which the film itself is based. And we do not miss anything: bursts of shots, waves of enemies, sniper sights, explosions and even a heads up with a demon that is resolved using an always effective chainsaw.
By directing the events of the film to what we can define as his own interpretation of the iD Software license. Abusing the clichés of action movies to the point where the climax is a fair fist fight. Something paradoxical, if we start from the fact that DOOM is considered the first great reference of first-person shooters.
Does that mean that firearms are not used? Absolutely: although the Marines sent to Mars seem to be doing target practice with the Star Wars stormtroopers (judging by their poor aim) in the IDKFA room, Sergeant Sarge gets hold of a very powerful BFG 9000 capable of melting the hull of the facility leaving a blinding trail of light.
As we discussed, the DOOM movie has many details that are reminiscent of the game. From a Dr. Carmack who owes his last name to two of the co-creators of the original game to a much more subtle beating heart that appears in an urn and that seeks to pay homage to the then logo of iD Software.
And, despite this, the film fails miserably when trying to transfer the essence of games to the big screen and, to top it all, it does not contribute anything relevant to action cinema either.
DOOM’s return to video games, and to movie theaters
If we leave out DOOM 3: BFG Edition , the relaunch of the third installment of the saga, we had to wait a whopping 11 years until the long-dreamed return of the first reference of first-person shooters. A wait that paid off: DOOM (2016) was a triumphant return to the classic experience, preserving the frenetic pace of the originals while keeping up with the best FPS.
Taking up everything that raised the acronym of DOOM to the status of a cult saga and also taking note of everything that did not finish working after the turn of the millennium.
And the thing did not end there: the very warm reception of the return of the Doomslayer gave rise to DOOM Eternal, the sequel and the direct link between all the installments of the saga. And, at the same time, the definitive proof that it is possible to introduce a plot background and narrative resources among so much barbarism if it is done well.
And, in the process, bringing the colors out of Andrzej Bartkowiak’s film. Which did not prevent Universal Pictures from repeating a play with some impudence in 2019.
Directed by and written by Tony Giglio, DOOM: Annihilation (2019) takes up the premise of the 2005 movie. Stumbling on the same stones and new ones. However, this time iD Software had nothing to do with it : from the Texas studio they totally declined to participate in the production or plot, limiting themselves to wishing the film crew luck.
As we mentioned, Universal Pictures has been a pioneer when it comes to bringing videogames to the big screen, although its results have not been exactly acclaimed. We owe the production company the adaptation of Street Fighter whose cast is led by Jean Claude van Damme or a Warcraft: the Origin that divided opinions.
Of course, they do not give up: in 2022 the premiere of Super Mario Bros .: The Movie is expected. Only this time there is an element that can make a difference: Nintendo and Shigeru Miyamoto are directly involved in the production.
Coincidence or not, Universal itself is in charge of producing the adaptation of Gears of War to the big screen. A powerful saga of third-person shooters with another aspect very in common with DOOM : both are part of the Microsoft license catalog.
And that opens the door to the highly anticipated appearance of the Doomslayer on billboards.
Is it possible to make a good movie based on DOOM, Super Mario Bros. or any other video game? Well we have good and recent examples, including the Sonic movie or Detective Pikachu.
Which shows that, despite being very different media with common aspects, it all comes down to setting a clear objective: to respect the experience and sensations of the game . Be lighthearted and colorful like a platformer, or intense and insane like a shooter from iD Software.
