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'Doom' makes a better game than a movie

Everything you need to know about Andrzej Bartkowiak's movie adaptation of the video game "Doom" can be summed up thusly: The screening audience gave a loud round of applause to a scene in which the main character is a gun.

Fans of the "Doom" series instantly recognized the weapon as the "BFG," an assault cannon that tears through enemies like a firehose through Kleenex. Bartkowiak's ("Romeo Must Die") camera all but caresses the gun, which hangs in midair like the Holy Grail in a medieval tapestry. The message is clear: "Doom" is about blood and bullets.

Universal Pictures 'Doom' 2 out of 5 stars Director: Andrzej Bartkowiak Starring: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Karl Urban, Rosamund Pike, Ben Daniels, Razaaq Adoti Run time: 100 minutes Release date: Oct. 21, 2005 Rating: R for strong violence/gore and language. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate 'Doom'   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

Just like its inspiration, the movie wraps this violence with a thin plot: Scientists on Mars have unleashed a terrible evil, which naturally turns against them. Space Marine John "Reaper" Grimm ("Lord of the Rings" actor Karl Urban, with an immobile face and a Kiwi-tinged American accent) must rescue his estranged sister, Sam ("Die Another Day's" Rosamund Pike).

Accompanying Grimm are a handful of fellow soldiers who we know from the get-go are largely expendable, but the movie helps us keep track of them by giving each one a psychological tick. There's the jumpy new kid, the creepy perv and of course, the Marine played by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

Johnson, whose charisma mostly manages to mask the fact that he doesn't act as well as the guns, plays Sarge, who keeps the operation running by the numbers until the squad falls under attack from the same monsters that killed the scientists.

When the shooting finally gets seriously under way, the Marines play cat and mouse with the baddies in claustrophobic corridors and sewers, replay some of the scary moments from "Alien" and even take the monsters on in an electrified version of Ultimate Cage Match.

And of course, there's the coup de grace, an extended first-person sequence that more or less simulates the visual experience of playing "Doom" on a really, really big monitor. Or rather, simulates the experience of watching someone else play "Doom," because there's obviously no way to control what's going to happen. "Remember," the movie is saying, "you're just watching this video game!"

And therein lies the problem: Games are fun because the player participates in the outcome. Movies have only story and character to drive them, and "Doom" comes up woefully short on both. The sequence is visually interesting, but like the movie overall, it's about as engaging as watching someone else play through a level of "Doom."