DOOM

A team of scientists working at the Olduvai research base on Mars is attacked and exterminated by mysterious creatures with superhuman strength. A special team of marines is sent to Mars to save the survivors, retrieve the valuable results of the research conducted there, and ensure that the "threat" is destroyed. "Doom" was born in the early '90s from the minds of Id Software, a company dedicated to the production of video games. A rather important title in the video game universe, as it represents one of the first steps into the world of First Person Shooters (vulgarly Italianized as "sparatutto"), a genre very popular among video game players, in which the plot is often subordinated to action. As the genre demands, the film based on this video game is largely focused on frenetic action, relegating the plot to a simple pretext for staging shootouts and brawls. The direction was entrusted to the Polish Andrzej Bartkowiak, already responsible for mediocre action movies ("Romeo Must Die"; "Blade II"), who gives his best in directing actors who shoot at each other and defend themselves from the attacks of the mutant zombies that populate the film. Despite this B-movie structure, "Doom" has its logic and perfectly respects what the audience of this type of films (and video games) demands: the action scenes are really well built (the fight in the electrified well) and in some aspects innovative (the pre-credits sequence in first person that explicitly cites the game); the special effects and the makeup of the creatures are of good quality. Even the actors, the classic comedy marines to which American cinema has accustomed us, are functional to the story and the monolithic faces of The Rock ("The Scorpion King") and Karl Urban ("The Chronicles of Riddick" and "The Lord of the Rings") seem perfect to bring to life the protagonists of this feature film. As for the screenplay, the work of the duo Callaham-Strick, original ideas are alternated that draw from fantasy-genetic engineering based on chromosomes that confer superpowers; to situations seen and revisited in numerous fantasy-horror films. Abundant are the citations (plagiarisms?) from "Aliens - Scontro finale", "Resident Evil" and "Stargate" throughout the first part of the film, while in the second part some pleasant ideas are perceived, such as the already cited Fist Person sequence, with framing at the height of the sight, and fantascientific-religious incursions that link the superhuman-demonic transformation to the dichotomy good/evil. The creatures are well realized, rarely resorting to computer graphics, and the choice to show them as little as possible and almost always in poor lighting conditions helps in creating suspense. The gore level is within the norm, relegated to some amputated limb and some splatter of blood realized digitally. "Doom" is therefore a fun toy that will surely please the fans of the video game, but which, due to a lack of originality and a fundamental stupidity, can be indigestible to the average viewer. It entertains but is quickly forgotten.