Recorded on Saturday, July 25, 2020
“In the year 2026, archaeologists working in the Nevada desert discovered a portal to an ancient city on Mars. They called this portal the Ark. 20 years later, we’re still struggling to understand why it was built—and what happened to the civilization that built it.” So begins director Andrzej Bartkowiak’s 2005 feature Doom. The movie follows a group of Marine Corps Special Ops soldiers—including Sarge (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) and Reaper (Karl Urban)—who travel to a research facility on Mars after that facility’s scientists fall victim to a mysterious incident. Lo and behold, monsters are on the loose, and it will be up to our marines to take those monsters down—violently.
Based on the video game series that was introduced in 1993, the movie was perhaps 10 years too late—but now, 15 years after its release, the Viewfinder FC is finally ready to understand why it was built.
Erratum: We have a hard time with dates in this episode, saying in our introduction that the Doom video game was introduced in 2003 (instead of 1993), and repeatedly suggesting that this movie from 2005 had instead come out in 2006. No one, it seems, comes out of this movie with their minds still fully intact.
References:
- “Doom: The Game Plays You,” Roger Ebert’s 1-star review
- “Critics vs. Gamers on Doom,” RogerEbert.com
