Blu-ray Movie Reviews

A frantic call for help from a remote research station on Mars sends a team of mercenary Marines into action. Led by 'The Rock' and Karl Urban, they descend into the Olduvai Research Station, where they find a legion of nightmarish creatures, lurking in the darkness, killing at will. Once there, the Marines must use an arsenal of firepower to carry out their mission; nothing gets out alive.

Video game adaptations are nearly always stupid. Doom is one of the pioneers of first person shooters and a classic among gamers. This film doesn’t really try and recreate the hell of the game but instead turns it into a sci-fi thriller that unfortunately doesn’t live up to the game’s level. They even tried to recreate the first person perspective for the film but all it did was make me motion sick. Still, diehard fans of the game will probably want to give it a look.

The Blu-ray presentation is very similar to the previous HD DVD release. Fine object detail is quite good and depth of image is impressive. There is a bit of inconsistency between CGI and the real world, but it isn’t too distracting. The toughest part of this presentation is how dark the image gets. I can’t stress how important a dark room is when watching this one. Even with my room totally pitch-black shadow detail was obscured on occasion. But overall this was a very good visual presentation.

As one would expect from a science fiction action movie based on a video game, the sound design is pretty aggressive. But sometimes I thought it wasn’t aggressive enough. Action was a bit tamer in this film than I would have thought given its game roots, but it was still fun to listen to. Surrounds are used EXTENSIVELY, especially in the first person part of the film. You also get a lot of split channel effects, which was very cool. The low end of this soundtrack is very aggressive so anyone using a smaller subwoofer should take notice so no damage occurs.

Extras are geared mostly toward the production and include on set footage, a look at the monsters and special effects and a look at the popularity this game franchise has spawned. There is also an extended first person sequence and a strategy guide for gamers. This title is also BD-Live enabled giving you access to Universal’s promo site and the ability to share bookmarked clips.

Game adaptations are always hit or miss and this one really did try to appease both film and game fans. Ultimately it fell a bit short but has some interesting elements. If you’re a fan of the film the presentation is solid but I would still call this one a rental.