While I'm not the world's most fanatical First Person Shooter fan, I know Doom from way back. Any gamer worth their salt has to. Wolfenstein may have brought us into three dimensions, but Doom made it real ...and really scary. Doom showed us that a game could make us scared for more than the sprite running around the screen eating dots or the possibility of losing yet another quarter. Doom introduced us to the possibility of actually being scared for ourselves. Through the years, id Software has brought us a few renditions of Doom, each one presenting a more realistic experience through better and better graphics. When Doom 3 was released, it was designed to go beyond the graphical capabilities of the computers on the market - designed so that it could be played with reduced features as needed to work with your machine, of course, but to play the game with all of the features turned up, you'd need a powerhouse of a gaming rig. We're talking about cutting edge computer graphics.

It's because of this that I find it quite interesting that Doom, the movie, went a different route for the most part. The computer generated special effects in Doom were actually less than you might find in your average action flick these days. Instead, they chose to use traditional costuming techniques to bring the familiar baddies from the Doom series to life. Unexpected, perhaps, but you won't find any pixelation to break your suspension of disbelief and, as much as I am an advocate for computer graphics, you simply can't beat honest-to-goodness slime. Computer graphics are used in certain areas, of course, but for the monsters, this is primarily limited to faces.

Doom, the movie, fits the feel of Doom 3 more than the other games in the series. The movie has more darkness and suspense. The earlier games didn't have the ability to portray the lighting effects of the later games, and used overwhelming hordes of enemies to scare players. Doom 3 and Doom, the movie, use more psychological thrills and suspense to set their victims on edge.

When I sat down to watch Doom, I was expecting to see a whole lot of fast paced action. For one thing, I was familiar with the earlier Doom games, and for another, "The Rock" stars in it. What I got instead did have action, but provided more suspense than anything else. For the most part, the movie seemed to stay true to the feeling of the games. There were several nods in the direction of the games and a couple of tongue in cheek references thrown in, but the number of times that the word "game" showed up in the dialogue tended to strain my suspension of disbelief.

If you can get around the dialogue, you'll be treated to some decent action, a somewhat interesting plot and some rather believable special force acting - something you'll come to appreciate even more once you've watched the feature on the combat training that the actors went through to prepare for shooting the movie.

Those who are interested in what goes into making a movie are likely to enjoy the behind-the-scenes looks at the costuming, special effects and the combat training. There's also a feature on the special First Person Sequence in the film, along with an extended version of that sequence.

Those who are new to Doom may appreciate the beginner's tour / strategy guide video feature as well as the Xbox Doom 3 demo that's on the DVD.

If you only buy the classics and the most renowned movies of our time, you've already wasted too much time reading this. If you're a fan of Doom, "The Rock" or you're just looking for a Sci-Fi Suspense, you may want to pick up Doom, the movie. (If, on the other hand, you're trying your hardest to collect every movie that is based on a video game, then you really haven't got much choice, now, have you?)