Fair warning: I gave up on this review about halfway through. What can I say? I suffered through the movie, couldn’t manage to get through writing a cohesive review.
Follows a group of UAC Marines as they respond to a distress call from a top secret scientific base on Phobos, a Martian moon, only to discover it’s been overrun by demons who threaten to create Hell on Earth.
I freely admit that I enjoy nothing more than sitting down and watching a truly horrible sci-fi movie at the end of a long workday, but even I have standards when it comes to what constitutes “bad sci-fi.”
Doom: Annihilation absolutely does not fit the bill.
From the very first moment that we see our main character, one disgraced Lieutenant Joan Dark (and yes, that’s a play on Joan of Arc), she is entirely unbelievable. This is not a reflection on actor, Amy Manson, as the acting in this film was surprisingly good without being over-the-top cheesy.
However, while I don’t mind the decision to have a female lead in a science fiction / action movie, if you want the audience to believe her, then you need to make her believable. And Joan Dark wasn’t convincing as a marine, friend, or even really as a person. There was no depth, nothing for the audience to relate to.
The death of her (very religious) mother made her lose her faith in God, but it’s mentioned so briefly that you forget the moment even happened (or that she had a mom in the first place). What should have been a poignant moment where Joan remembers her faith turns out to be a blink and you’ll miss it demons-are-afraid-of-crosses plot point.
For a movie about space marines, there was no point where I was able to believe that this woman was a soldier.
The CG work wasn’t the best, but for what I assume is a smaller budget film they weren’t terrible. The space scenes and the hellscape, in particular, were extremely well done and I thought that the tablet tech was also really cool. Again, there are moments where this movie does something right, they are just few and far between.
Throughout, Joan is mean just to be mean. This here girl don’t need no man and certainly doesn’t have feelings for a guy she was in a four-month relationship with. Though, he very clearly is still in love with her and I can guarantee that will be a plot point in the future.
Lol, the “doomed moon.” Roll credits!
I’m sorry, but I feel like Hollywood has pretty much exhausted the “an entire unit has been given a shit assignment over the actions of one person” trope. This will surely be yet another future plot point.
In order to fight the enemy, you gotta stop fighting yourself
Captain Savage
Alright, y’all… at this point it’s just rambling thoughts. I’ve been looking at this post for two weeks now and can’t even make coherent sentences out of my thoughts from watching the film.
Feel free to let me know in the comments how horribly this post is written, lol.
The music is actually pretty decent and surprisingly good for a movie of this caliber.
She can’t even carry a duffel bag without leaning away from it 🙄
Wow. Starship trooper-esque helmets. So cool. The guns look like cereal box toys.
The writing is awkward as hell, but the actors aren’t half bad with what they’ve got to work with. The sets aren’t bad either, actually, and work well as a believable military/scientific facility.
Random chainsaw.
Random dead guy just when we’re wondering where everyone is.
Also, really weird writing… in blood! 😱
…which is, apparently, Sumerian?
Have come to reclaim what is ours. Through wrath will come justice. Through pain, divinity. No escape this time.
Unknown
Some kind of bug in the computer system? Didn’t realize demons were hackers. Did none of these trained soldiers even glance at a layout of the base?
Doesn’t take much for these guys to be at each others throats. Not very professional.
Life forms detected. People are about to get shot.
…or get their throats torn out. Eww.
Finally a soldier who knows how to shoot an enemy combatant… and apparently has PTSD from one attack?
Dr. Carmack, huh? That’s not a familiar name at all, lol.
Yes, let’s go our separate ways, because THAT will take care of the problem and certainly won’t make us easier to pick off.
The ‘monsters’ at this point are just people in bad halloween costumes. And they, somehow, know hand to hand?
And here’s the chainsaw. Right after our “trained soldier” throws her last weapon away.
This movie is eye rolling bad.
Why is the captain going off in his own? He just let all of those monsters eat him alive? The heck?
Ok, the guy suddenly grabbing the soldiers leg actually made me jump.
The camera angles and lighting are good.
Demons are stupid. The possession aspect also stupid and REALLY random (except I’m sure the head scientist is now a super baddie).
Is… this… supposed to be the reactor?
And now we get backstory on Lieutenant Joan Dark’s past misdeeds. The lead scientist is trying to sow discord in the most predictable way. I like how scientist ex-boyfriend is just ignoring the discussion happening around him.
Yeah. That is NOT a nuclear reactor.
Shoot them in the head. Why is this difficult?
And, of course, everyone is dead except for the scientist ex and super amazing soldier Joan.
So many “bad” words.
Of course. It’s a BFG. 🙄
Suddenly, Joan has a conscience and feels guilt for being the reason her whole team is dead. Pep talk from the ex.
There is zero chemistry between these two.
So, did the elevator take the monster and Bennett to their desired floor before coming back for Joan?
Well that’s a lot of bodies.
Oh noes! Now she had to kill her ex! 😭
I’m sorry, what is going on? Joan got pushed into the gate and is now in the doom hells-cape? What? Is she going to magically kill the big bad?
This isn’t badass, this is stupid.
If you kill the leader, do you become the leader?
How are humans a plague upon the universe if they’re only on earth?
Meh, that was a waste of time.
Disliked: Everything? This was just a waste of time, if you ask me. Not really a “bad sci-fi” movie, just a bad movie in general.
In conclusion: The acting was surprisingly good, given the material the actors were given to work with. There were a few moments that made me chuckle, but for the most part, I wouldn’t waste my time watching this movie. Go watch “Doom” instead and enjoy some Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Karl Urban… much better movie.
Meandering Michelle 