The new Doom movie’s trailer finally dropped yesterday. We’re off to a bad start with the name alone, taking cues from 1997’s Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, of all things. For anyone who missed it (or those of you who thought you could escape), here it is:
As you can see on the YouTube page, it is itself being annihilated by everyone with an internet connection. This was hardly unexpected. The last time we had a Doom movie, it was, well…. let’s just say it was about as enjoyable an experience as being strapped into a chair with a VR headset endlessly looping a super sized Pain Elemental sprite right in your face for an hour and a half.
The consensus so far seems to suggest that Doom: Annihilation will very much deliver the same kind of thrill. Between the production values (or lack thereof) and acting, there’s certainly enough to cringe over, no matter how much we all knew it would come to this. What is, however, a little confusing is the number of people who are mad that this is not a movie about ‘Doom Slayer’, aka ‘Doomguy’.
Which is to say; our fellow netizines would really rather just watch someone Twitch streaming a run of Doom 2016.
#notmydoomguy
Amazingly, the biggest issue plaguing this already questionable movie seems to be the cast. It isn’t just the acting (though that isn’t helping); it’s that the main (?) character quite literally has no balls. The loudest complaint so far is that rather than Doomguy/ Doomslayer, we’re getting a she-marine leading a strike team into the base.
There’s a lot to dig at over that particular train of thought. From the exceptionally long list of reasons to roll ones eyes at this movie, a lack of ‘Doom slayer’ is really not one of them. A lack of power armor, perhaps. Definitely the complete absence of any cybernetic spawn of hell, or over-engineered tech bases. For all the subtle call-backs to E1M1 and other Easter eggs that -were- in the trailer, it most certainly does not look like Doom. However, the specific point about Doom Slayer himself being the key sounds like it’s missing the mark.
Every single time we’ve had a plot focused Doom title, the cast has been expanded. Most of the time, we end up following the progress of a small squad. On top of that, horror upon horrors, there are actual women in these teams! Doom II RPG presented Kira Morgan as a playable character. Arlene Sanders and Maria Moraetes are introduced as team leaders in the books. Crash is said to have been Doom’s instructor in Quake III.
The point is, not having the story focus entirely on a single, superhuman über-soldier is not ‘Doom breaking’. There’s definitely little to look forward to if that trailer was any indication, but this is seriously reaching. We have quite enough things to take aim at here without needing to go on the usual counter-SJW crusade.
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