Publication Date: 02-01-2026

Doom (2005) review

Dir. Andrzej Bartkowiak

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★

NOTE: This review was originally written back in May 2021, when I was in the middle of watching all of Andrzej Bartkowiak’s movies in hopes to interview the man himself and write a long-form essay on his works. After multiple failed attempts to contact Bartkowiak, I abandoned the essay, and some reviews went unpublished. Being that I referenced Doom in my review of Mark “Markiplier” Fischbach’s film Iron Lung, released in January 2026, I decided to double-back and publish my review of the film.

Andrzej Bartkowiak’s Doom has become something of a poster-child for video-game-to-movie adaptations, ignominiously sitting alongside Super Mario Bros. albeit with considerably less of a cult-following. The idea to base a film off a game that couldn’t be any more simple than run-and-shoot was a flawed concept from the jump. Make it too rudimentary and you have a poster-child for a brainless action movie. Make it too complicated and all of a sudden the masses are reminding folks it’s Doom, not Dune. Therein lies the issue.

While not as unbearable as the discourse suggests, the compromise we got is still an unremarkable shoot-em-up that squanders both its cast and the horror elements embedded in the iconic game from id Software. It too comes from an era that reminds us that at one point, Dwayne Johnson — back when he simply went by “The Rock” — wasn’t automatically embraced for every project he did.

In Doom, he plays the generically named “Sarge,” a leader of a squad of space marines known as the “Rapid Response Tactical Squad,” who are sent to Mars after a reported security breach threatens valuable research. The team is comprised of Reaper (Karl Urban), Destroyer (Deobia Oparei), Mac (Yao Chin), Goat (Ben Daniels), Duke (Razaaq Adoti), Portman (Richard Brake), and “Kid” (Al Weaver), with that being about as much character development they’re individually afforded. Upon their arrival on Mars — through oddly convenient yet imperfect transportation via “the Ark” — the team discovers that the facility has been overtaken by hideous mutant aliens.

Reaper is the brother of Dr. Samantha Grimm (Rosamund Pike), an anthropologist on Mars who has made a profound discovery. After reconstructing a complete skeleton of a Martian, Grimm opines that the original creatures were superhumans with a bio-engineered 24th chromosome that gave them the ability to run faster, think quickly, and heal at a rapid pace. Some of the infected became superhumans and others became monsters, apparently, and the latter is what Sarge and his troupe are dealing with all while trying to rescue a crop of scientists.

Writers David Callaham and Wesley Strick get points for trying to bring a method to the madness in their script, but by the time Dr. Grimm makes it all come together, you simply wish the film would embrace its campy, violent core. Thankfully, it does. A little more than an hour into the two-hour affair (if you, like me, indulge in the unrated director’s cut signifying you have a lot of free-time on your hands), Bartkowiak and company ostensibly realize they’re making a film based on the iconic video-game Doom. It’s then we’re treated to some dimly lit shootouts and the infamous first-person sequence, which remains impressive in clarity and direction; unlike much of what leads up to it.

But even as Doom embraces its roots, questionable creative decision-making remains. Not a single one more perplexing than the choice to assign the generic name “Bio Force Gun” to the fan-favorite weapon known as the “BFG.” Why not call it “Big Fucking Gun,” like in the game? Callaham and Strick have their archetypes throw the f-bomb around so liberally anyway. Did they fear it would bring down the prose of a movie based on a video-game that already boasts a paper-thin plot?

Just when it couldn’t get hokier, the trump card of “what if… we humans were the real demons all along?” is played. In contemporary times, where Dwayne Johnson is one of the few bankable movie-stars in American cinema, who is placed front-and-center in a barrage of actioneers, it is admittedly exciting to see him slowly turn into the villain before our eyes. As the power dynamic shifts, Karl Urban makes the most out of a paper-thin character, and nevertheless… Rosamund Pike persists. It still doesn’t distract from the fact that Doom has far too much talent to get away with them standing around and not doing much of interest. The effects are passable, but are indicative of a project that wasn’t afforded the spectacular budget reserved for more surefire hits. And after Romeo Must Die and Cradle 2 the Grave saw Bartkowiak managing colorful ensembles of misfit characters, to see a litany of underdeveloped personalities pains the most. Doom is a mess. One with minor merits. But a mess no less.

Starring: The Rock, Karl Urban, Rosamund Pike, Deobia Oparei, Yao Chin, Ben Daniels, Razaaq Adoti, Richard Brake, and Al Weaver. Directed by: Andrzej Bartkowiak.