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Fans of the Doom gaming franchise may be feeling a bit better today as the first in-movie footage, shown at the Comic-Con convention in San Diego, suggests that its creators have listened to fans. The biggest news regarding the Doom movie effort had to do with aspects of the story and how the original game story is being incorporated into the movie script.
The cast and production team members of the movie formed a panel at Comic-Con in an attempt to put gamers at ease with the movie and to repair relations with the gaming community which had severely deteriorated in the past few months.
The first news which should make Doom fans feel better is that Mars is now on and most of the movie will take place on the red planet. Doom the movie will also not be rated PG-13 but R with the Rock himself claiming that the movie is: ...unapologetic as hell, faithful and gory. We are not sure if the mention of hell in the quote is meant to be a clue that the ultimate evil lair will be included in the movie.
The Doom team also confirmed that the movie will also include the most creatures of evil from the game including Hellknight, The Baron, Imps and Pinky Demons. According to Dave Callaham, the movie plot will follow the games closely but no details were divulged except for a short statement that it involves a ...team on Mars chasing real evil, bad things. Some confusion was caused when the movie team claimed that in the movie we will see how the monsters are created.
To further demonstrate how important the games have been to the movie creation process, the crew involved claimed that iD had been and is still, involved in the project since day one. A variety of corridors and labs are almost recreations of their in-game counterparts while extra attention to detail has been paid with the in-movie computer screens featuring the same images as those seen in the game.
In order to recreate the monsters required, the special effects teams decided on using a lot of physical props and effects rather than going all-out on CG creations. While The Rock insists that the only reason he wanted to join the movie was the chance to shoot the BFG which he claims is huge. The Rock, Karl Urban and the rest of the actors playing the marines have been trained by Tom McAdams an ex-Army consultant with 25 years of experience, in order to make their movements a realistic depiction of an elite unit in combat.
All this may be interesting but what really won the crowd over at the Comic-Con was a 3 minute clip from the movie, taken from an overall 6 minute in-movie sequence. In the footage shown, Karl Urban is seen in a room, looking slightly hurt, sitting on the floor. Just as he passes out, the camera moves into his head, through his eye and, following the necessary flash, we are back in the room. This time however, we can see things through Urban's eyes in a style very similar to that used in the Doom games. The first images we see are of Mr. Urban himself in a mirror, another nod to the games. What follows next is a continuous barrage of FPS action with a lot of lock'n'load and the odd tribute to gaming, through the use of shadows and the familiar Doom 3 corridors and labs. This sequence alone seems to suggest that the Rock is right when he claims that The intensity of the game is in the movie. From minute 5 we're there. Non-stop train ride to Hell. Pay attention to yet another mention of the cauldron stacked basement by Mr. Johnson.
Back in the clip, the marine uses an assault rifle until, half way through the footage; he swaps it for a shotgun. The entire sequence is well made and seems to have retained much of what makes the games so popular. It remains for us to see if the movie makers will stop at this sequence or if they will manage to deliver an overall well crafted movie.
Doom the movie is expected to release in the U.S. on October 21, 2005 while stay with MegaGames for the trailer mentioned above as soon as it is released.