In 2024, the prospect of a hyper-violent action movie starringThe Boys’Karl Urbanand bona-fide Hollywood royaltyDwayne “The Rock” Johnsonwould be quite a prospect. The former is in the ascendancy after some shrewd career moves (dating back to the underappreciatedDredd, honestly), while until recently, former WWE starJohnson has been box office gold. His fortunes have changed somewhat, with some less well-received movies likeBlack AdamandRed One, but given the right role - asMoanaproves - he is still a top draw.
Put them together, and you’d think you’d be onto a winner. But going back 19 years reveals that the pair - who have starred in some of the best action movies and TV shows of the last two decades - reveals that they worked together on a movie that most choose to forget. To date, their only collaboration was a major flop, sitting on a 34% Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes, failing to make back its budget at the box office.
But for all the issues with video game adaptationDoom, there is one scene in particular that is still amazing, even though the rest of the film really wasn’t a sum of its parts. Despite one of his first starring roles crashing and burning, Urban has also done well for himself sinceDoom, and he actually has a chance to redeem himself in a video game adaptation, as he wascast as Johnny Cage forMortal Kombat 2. But what better time to look at his first try, and the overlooked genius thatDoombriefly showed?
Why Doom Was So Critically Hated
Another Case Of A Cursed Video Game Adaptation
The last few years have seen sometruly great video game adaptations, with the likes ofThe Last of Us,Fallout,Arcane,Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, and theSonictrilogy all coming out in the 2020s. This is a great turnaround given that video game adaptations prior were largely terrible, withDoomjoining the long list of failed projects. Upon release,Doomwas a financial failure, earning just under $60 million worldwide against a production budget of $70 million, which was a sizable investment for a video game property in the early-mid 2000s.
Doomwas also a critical dud, with an 18% critics score onRotten Tomatoes, though audiences liked it more. One of the major criticisms ofDoomwas how it strayed from its source material, particularly with the origins of the monsters, as well as failing to tap into the atmosphere that makesDoomgames so compelling. It just wasn’t a good film, but there is one particular scene the movie gets right that shows how cool a properDoomadaptation could be.
The First Person Sequence In Doom Is One Of The Best Action Movie Scenes Ever
For One Brief Moment, Everything Went Perfectly
During the events ofDoom, there isa roughly four-minute scene that embraces the first person shooter aspect of its source material, making it an entertaining moment in an otherwise uninspired movie. In the scene, the camera is fixed from Karl Urban’s POV as he attempts to make it through a building against a wave of enemies that appear sporadically throughout. It’s the closest thing the adaptation gets right when attempting to translate the game into live-action.
First person scenes are rarely done in films, especially action films, withHardcore Henryutilizing the technique throughout its entire runtime. It’s a fun diversion from what is typically associated with action films, and the switch in perspective breathes some life intoDoomwhen it happens, making it an incredibly cool scene that ranks among some of the best action scenes in film.Doommay not be a great movie, but it does have a really great scene.
Doom
Cast
Doom, directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak, follows a team of space marines known as the Rapid Response Tactical Squad who are dispatched to a Mars research facility after a security breach. They face alien threats and uncover the dangers of a mutagenic experiment led by Dr. Grimm.
