Pros: Some references to other id Software games Cons: Scenario; dialogues; cast; fight scenes; special effects; in general, all DOOM: Annihilation / “DOOM: Annihilation”
Genre horror, action
Directed by Tony Giglio
Starring Amy Manson (Joan Dark), Nina Bergman (Carly), Louis Mandylor (Chaplain), Dominic Mapham (Dr. Betruger), Luke Allen-Gale (Stuon), etc.
Universal Studios 1440, Universal Pictures
Year of release 2019
IMDb website
DOOM (2005), despite the participation of very good actors and a budget of $60 million, failed miserably at the box office, earning only $56 million. The film received extremely negative reviews from both the press and audience. Its current rating on IMDb is 5.2/10 with more than 100 thousand users who rated the film. Nevertheless, the film still had a number of positive qualities – the participation of famous actors, a generally good picture, an excellent episode with a first-person view and, and this is the most important thing, that film, with all its shortcomings, was made with respect to original game. DOOM: Annihilation, unfortunately, has none of this. No good actors, no budget, no special effects, no respect.
I don’t know who came up with the idea on the eve of the release of DOOM Eternal (November 22, 2019) to remake the 2005 film, but this time they decided not to take risks, taking unknown actors, cutting the budget and giving the script to the director of the film, Tony Giglio. , who has long been interested in filming a variety of trash. Tony’s directorial credits include such bad films as In Enemy Hands, Chaos, Timber Falls, Extraction and SWAT: Under Siege. Well, DOOM: Annihilation will be the crown jewel of his resume. To be safe, they decided not to release the film in cinemas; however, the leading streaming services were not interested in it either. The result is a Direct-to-video format, a graveyard of bad films. But, of course, we couldn’t just pass by the film adaptation of one of the most famous video games.
You probably know the plot. A secret laboratory on Mars, in this case on Phobos, portals, a group of marines, demons from hell – in a word, everything is as usual. The problem is that even from this stupidly banal plot, if desired, something interesting could be made, but alas. Absolutely everything is bad in Doom: Annihilation. Actually everything.
The actors don’t even try to act. At all. They repeat template phrases that replace dialogue here, sometimes without any emotion at all, sometimes overacting by three or four tones. And yes, you won’t see a single famous name in the credits, unless Dominic Mafam, “playing” Dr. Betruger, has already appeared somewhere. Even so, it would still be possible to choose a less gray, completely inexpressive and completely uncharismatic actress for the main role. The same Nina Bergman, who plays Carly, looks like the best option.
Okay, things didn’t work out with the actors. But why is everything so formulaic here, and made according to the templates of a cheap student slasher? Among the heroes there is a stern captain, who, of course, will die heroically, covering the retreat of the others; there is a huge black man with a big gun who will be one of the first to die; there is a hysterical Marine who has clearly escaped from a cheap comedy; there is a boy-woman who does not lose her composure under any circumstances; there is a priest who will do something important before he dies; there is a pretty girl whose whole task is to give the main character the Red Key at the end of the film; there is a smart scientist who can repair nuclear reactors from a smartphone, etc.
DOOM: Annihilation looks like a cheap trash slasher with zombies on a space station. The role of the monsters is played by students in lab coats with faces smeared with brilliant green. In the role of a space station – some kind of industrial facility. However, the authors still bothered to dress one of the actors in a Baron of Hell costume and “taught” him to throw fireballs. But what’s the point? And yes, the authors tried to make a first-person episode in DOOM: Annihilation… and it would be better if they didn’t do it.
Among the attributes that connect the film with the DOOM series of games, there is the above-mentioned Baron of Hell, Hell’s Gate, the Red Key and, of course, BFG-9000. But for some reason this BFG shoots without splash damage at all. Why do we even need such a BFG? In addition, the authors inserted a couple of references to other id Software games into the film, mainly in the form of the names of soldiers and scientists killed at the station. Well, at least it’s something.
A cheap student production, with weak special effects, disgusting acting, terrible shootouts and crooked space marines. Doom: Annihilation is perhaps the worst video game adaptation in history. Don’t waste an hour and a half of your time, we’ve already done it for you.
Conclusion:
The worst video game adaptation in history, made without any respect for the original
