I'm a late-bloomer. In just about everything. All my friends lost their virginities before me. I was the last to drink, smoke, etc... And it took me forever to get on the internet. I believe my first introduction to the WWW was in 94? Damn!

That was also the first time I really saw how gaming had changed since the days of my childhood. Sure, I had an NES, but my computer knowledge was solely based on an IBM PC Jr. (I miss that ancient Flight Simulator.) My point is that I was introduced to Doom late in the game. I'd heard of it and seen screen-shots, but never played the damn thing until everyone else was done with it and had probably moved on to Quake.

But I fell in love with that fucking game. I still have the floppies around here, somewhere. When I (finally) bought an SNES, I got that version. When I (finally) got the Playstation 2, I snagged that version, as well.

A big-screen translation had been threatened for years. (I imagined Bruce Campbell playing the marine. But with his attitude, lately, he can fuck off.)

Well, it finally happened and I finally got to see it.

As everyone and their brother knows, the feature film of Doom stars The Rock. (I hate myself for having to type that stupid name.) I'd read all the reviews from its theatrical release and really didn't expect much. So, how bad is it, in my opinion?

This movie was great! What's wrong with all those morons? I heard people saying "It's ok, for what it is." Well, what the fuck is it? It's a film where people run around with guns and shoot monsters, dammit! That being said, it actually reached somewhat further than "what it is" and was a pretty good story.

About that story: Something goes terribly wrong on a Mars research facility and soldier-types are called in to clean up. That's it. That's all the game was, as well. But the writer (one David Callahan) actually gave us some more to pay attention to. The only problem is, he dropped the portal to hell aspect and gave us some bullshit gene-splicing crap. Oh well, it's still fun.

Sure, it seems like Aliens, at times. But how can you complain about that when it's a goddamn movie about military types running around shooting at things? They couldn't really stray from that set-up, as that's the whole point of the game. What did you want them to do? Big dance numbers and fairies that make chocolate cake for the monsters and humans to share with each other? Christ! You idiots!

The performances are well done, for such limited characterizations, with the exception of one person that fucks everything up with their awful delivery. Rosamund Pike. God, she sucked. Looks good, but didn't act, at all. You could just hold a piece of wood over her image and it would pretty much be the same. (Or, hell, a picture of Keanu would work just as well.)

One actor it was nice to see, again, was Richard Brake. Remember Death Machine? He played Scott Ridley in that flick. And he makes for the perfect slimeball, yet again.

The movie is filmed well. Lots of darkness, but not too dark and nice colors/lighting. It also started with the action as soon as possible and never really let up. Also, the filmmakers realized that just straight gunplay would get boring, so they have some great physical action scenes.

I had a lot of fun with this flick. It looked good and the sound was great! I have to give props to Clint Mansell. His soundtrack wasn't overbearing. It just kinda creeped in, at times (thinking of the final confrontation, here) and also kicked in with the industrial when it was needed. Nicely done!

Finally, this movie is fucking bloody. Of course, I got the unrated version, so who knows what people saw in the theater, but this....I'm ready to watch it, again.