D V D C R Y P T

DOOM

Directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak
Written by Dave Callaham & Wesley Strick
Cinematography by Tony Pierce-Roberts
Music by Clint Mansell
Special fx by Stan Winston
Cast: The Rock, Karl Urban, Rosamund Pike, Deobia Oparei, Ben Daniels, Razaaq Adoti & Dexter Fletcher

2005/117 mins/Color/5.1 Dolby Digital
2.35:1 anamorphic/English/US/NTSC Region 1

Review from the Universal DVD

Far away on a remote research station, a group of scientists have made an alert call because something terribly wrong happened. A group of tough and renegade Marines, lead by Sarge (WWE's wrestler The Rock), are send to this isolated location to save any possible survivors... and kill the menace. What first looks like a routine job turns to carnage as all hell is breaking loose.

Like most gamers out there, I played the hell out of the first two DOOM games when they first came out. When a DOOM movie was announced, I was very reluctant about it. Judging by the very poor history of movies based on video games, I can say that I wasnt expecting much from it. Anyone wants to remember MORTAL KOMBAT, STREET FIGHTERS or SUPER MARIO BROS.? Not me thats for sure! Well despiste some changes from the actual DOOM games, the movie actually turned out very entertaining... that's if you turn your brain completely off.

The best part from the movie is without a doubt the three-minute, first-person sequence in which John "Reaper" Grimm (Karl Urban) goes through various tunnels kicking monster's ass and taking names... just like if you played the game. Another cool thing about this movie is that most of the monsters are actually men in suits and not the usual rather poor cg fx that plagues most of today's movies. There's the usual and useless sci-fi mumbo jumbo about bio-engineered super chromosome and blah, blah, blah. Oh and I loved the DOOM-ish Universal intro at the beginning of the film, simple but a nice touch.

DOOM is unleashed on DVD thanks to Universal. For this review I watched the Unrated Extended Edition which supposedly runs 13 more minutes then the theatrical one. Since I missed it during its theatrical run I can't tell you what has been added but I can guess. The film contains some good bloody and gory scenes. The movie is presented in its original 2.35:1 anamorphic aspect ratio. The image is simply amazing, with no compression or artifacts. This is much welcomed especially since most of the movie actually takes place in the dark. There is three 5.1 Dolby Digital audio tracks; English, French and Spanish. All of them are crisp, clear, loud and make good use of the .1 subwoofer channel. English, French and Spanish subtitles are also available.

'Basic Training' is a cool 11 minutes featurette on the training the actors protraying the Marines had to go through for the film. 'Rock Formation' shows us how the very cool make-up process was done for the former WWE superstar. 'Master Monster Makers' is another 11 minutes featurette, this time focusing on the creation of the monsters. 'First Person Shooter Sequence' is a 6 minutes featurette about exactly what it says it is. Lots of work went into that 3 minutes sequence, thats for sure. 'DOOM Nation' is a very cool featurette on the whole DOOM phenomenon, from its beginning over ten years ago to the latest game and now the movie. In 'Game On' we get some tips for the DOOM 3 game. And finally there's an XBox demo for DOOM 3 which looks amazing!

The movie is separated in 20 chapters, features some very cool animated game like menus, comes in a keep case and with an inlay card about other Universal releases. The disc also features previews for JARHEAD, FIRST DESCENT, BRICK and BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. This is yet another great release from Universal Home Entertainment.

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