[I spoil some main points of the movie.]
Guess what, guys. It's not that bad.
"Doom: Annihilation" is a movie released in 2019. It is the second and most recent movie made for the Doom video game franchise. It is also greatly disliked by fans of the games. I guess I fit into that, but let me go into some detail.
This movie is actually a retelling of the original game. The big, most glaring change which you cannot ignore is that Doom Guy is now Doom Girl. Her name is Joan Dark, which just has to be a reference to Perfect Dark. Just has to be. I don't actually know if it is. Love it or hate it, Doom Guy lost the job to a woman, and that is the main reason most people did not bother watching this.
But once you get past that, there is a whole movie that needs to be watched and judged on its own merits. That's what I did. I watched it so you wouldn't have to.
The look and ascetics of the film resemble "Doom (2016)," but weirdly the villain is Doctor Betruger who was the arch bad guy from "Doom 3." This kind of makes sense if you are basing this more on the original game's story. "Doom 3" was a reimagining of the original game, so it stands to reason that, if you needed a main villain, Betruger was a good choice. He is represented a little differently here, though. He has more of a "nice guy" look than his video game counterpart, who looked like he got pooped out of Satan's butthole.
This movie is full of references to the games to an absurd degree. The AI that's assisting them is called Daisy. That's the name of the original Doom Guy's pet rabbit. One of the fallen scientists was named Blaskowics, which is the main character from the Wolfenstein games. Another dead scientist was named John Carmack, the man who actually created Doom. Everyone was also using these huge keycards to get around the station on Phobos. At one point, Joan Dark picks up a completely random chainsaw and starts hacking away at monsters. There are a lot more references like this that I don't need to mention. I kind of rolled my eyes at most of them. Reference baiting is a really cheap way to get an audience riled up.
There weren't a lot of guns in the movie, but the BFG9000 did make an appearance. It was, however, kind of sad and underpowered. The first movie did it right. Too bad.
I think the most important thing was that this was actually a Hell invasion... and frankly... it was done fairly intelligently. The lore behind it was really cool. The demons were writing in Ancient Samarian. There was also a really nice religious angle in the movie given by the station's chaplain. It made for a good counterpoint to dealing with the demon hoard, and they were never dismissive of it. Religion in this movie actually mattered. The "cross" mattered.
Another thing I thought was cool was that the scientists had an evolutionary concept of humanity, but the demons actually referred to us as "creations." Nice touch! So no problems there!
Now, keep in mind that this movie went straight to DVD. It has all the cheese and action of a 90's Scifi Channel Original Movie. A lot of the acting and writing is kind of stilted and forced... but it's really not that bad. Even Joan Dark was not coming across as too much of an overbearing feminist. She was definitely female, strong in some ways and weak in others. I dunno. I kinda liked her.
The crazy thing is... the only thing really bad about this movie is that it came really close to just being a good Doom movie that represented the games. All they had to do was have Doom Guy in it, and it would have been entirely passable. But that said... John Dark is fine. And this movie is fine. It's completely watchable and even had me interested to see how things ended up.
So... I guess I recommend the movie... just as long as you understand what you are getting into. It's certainly not perfect. I give it a solid 6 out of 10... but at least it's over half way, right? Sometimes that's all you need to enjoy yourself. But between you and me... I don't think Hollywood should try making Doom movies anymore. Two attempts is enough. Let's leave well enough alone.
This blog was written on June 4, 2025.
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