DOOM: ANNIHILATION (2019)

A group of UAC Marines are tasted with answering a distress call from a secret base on Phobos, one of Mars’ moons.  Thus, begins the latest film adaption DOOM: ANNIHILATION (2019) of the popular video game.  Although this film takes inspiration from the video games it has nothing to do with the previous live action film of 2005 and instead goes on a different path. Joan Dark (Amy Manson) is one of these Marines who must learn the nature of the secret military base once they arrive and realize that they cannot communicate with any of the staff or personnel.  They don’t have much time as they soon learn that they base is set to self-destruct if they can’t get everything back online in time.

To make matters worse is the fact there is something else on the base with them that wants to kill everything it comes into contact with.  Like Most films of this type, it borrows heavily from Aliens (1986) while also making sure audiences who enjoy the game also get what they are expecting.  Manson does a great job bringing her A-Action Game for this film as I was constantly reminded of actress Millia Jovovich in the Resident Evil films especially when the creatures reveal themselves.

There are many hokey elements to the film, but they actually add to the overall entertainment of the proceedings especially if you’re a fan of the video game and know what you’re getting into from the start.  Writer/director Tony Giglio is obviously a fan of the game and wants audiences to become one soon after watching his film. 

The visual FX are really good, and the production design is excellent making for a highly enjoyable film despite the clichés that come with this genre of film and its low expectations.  Video game adaptations are not usually films that audiences really lavish much attention to but this version of the game is far superior to the previous and opens the door for future sequels.  Doom: Annihilation may not be the best film adapted from a video game but its certainly one of the better ones.

Film Review: SILENT HILL: REVELATION (2012)

The original Silent Hill (2006) wasn’t the best film in terms of story but it had style and it actually had many surprising and horrifying moments despite the over bloated ending so it was a surprise that a sequel was in the works.  Silent Hill: Revelation (2012) pales in comparison as it borrows the style from the original but has little else going for it. 

 Harry (Sean Bean) and his daughter Heather (Adelaide Clemens) have been moving from town to town under different alias’ after the events of the first film in which Heather was saved from the clutches of Silent Hill by her step mother Rose (Radha Mitchell).  Now Heather is all grown up and she is plagued with nightmares about Silent Hill and hunted by creatures that want her to return.  When her father is kidnapped Heather travels to Silent Hill not only to save her father but to discover her true past and to rid herself of the nightmares.

The film has the makings of a good film as it has all the returning players from the original film but the film has very little in the way of a story that offers anything new that wasn’t in the previous film.  Bean and Mitchell are barely give more than a cameo in the film and instead the film focuses on the teenagers’ plight which is in direct contrast to the first film which focused on Rose’s search for her missing daughter.  This film comes off more as another teen horror film and lacks the depth of the first film.  Clemens also doesn’t have the ability to carry the story on her own.   In the first film Rose’s exploration of Silent Hill yielded strange characters and even stranger horrors whereas in this film Heather’s exploration seems disjointed as if they were vignettes that don’t really go anywhere or connect with the rest of the film.

There are a few stand-out creatures like the spider made of mannequin parts and the nurses return for more mayhem as well as other creatures from the first film but the film lacks the focus of the original and none of these sequences are particularly suspenseful or frightening.  There lies the biggest setback of the film which is the fact that it lacks the drive or atmosphere of the first film rendering much of what happens static and uninteresting.