This blog post is part of the Agora Road Travelogue for July 2025

I Just recently re-downloaded Doom, a game that I don’t think I ever finished, but that has come to constitute a pivotal point of my subconsciousness. I am not really that into first person shooters, but there is something so geeky about Doom that constantly makes me revisit it. I have played it on the Nintendo DS, iPhone, and, recently, on Linux like a Chad.

My surprise was great and pleasant when I discovered there’s a movie made of it, released in 2005 if sometime, so that I could justify watching it as part of my Retro Friday Movie Review series. The film is strikingly similar to Resident Evil from just a couple years prior, and whose success might be the primary reason this film was made. Both films are heavily inspired by Alien from 1979: a group of people have to survive being entrapped in a closed environment with something chasing them.

I don’t think that anyone will come to this movie expecting something other than gore and blood. And even being so much of a fan of the game as I am, I can’t say that story or lore are its strongholds. The premise is kind of over the top: going full Texas-massacre against demons in space, which is kind of rad on its own and is part of the charm of the game. So I didn’t really like it when they made the movie another film about a virus (or genome, whatever) that turns people into mutants, but then again, it does not subtract anything from the storyline, so, once you are over it, it becomes very enjoyable to discover all of the easter eggs and homages that the movie makes to the game.

I think that The Rock and the The Boys guy both really make a good performance. The rest of the crew is also kind of charming in the sense that they are the stereotypes you could see in any other action film. Surprisingly enough, most of the special effects are not dated at all. Of course, the overall darkness that dominates the film contributes to this. The score ny Clint Mansell is also fantastic. In general, a very entertaining watch if you are up for what the premise proposes, and a very enjoyable piece for anyone who likes Doom for its senseless gore and violence