This Film is Doomed
The fact that they actually use the term “direct-to-video” tells you everything you need to know about Doom Annihilation.
As if humanity hasn’t suffered enough over the past literally forever, film adaptations of video games continue to be produced at breakneck speed and holy shit, can you believe we’re actually rebooting them now? But of course we are, why fix what’s broken and still brings in money somehow? Being “direct-to-video” means something different now than it did a decade ago. In short, the term “direct-to-video” has always been synonymous with low quality attempts to get into people’s wallets. Now it often means “direct-to-streaming-platform,” which has become a popular way to release movies in the past couple years, even bringing otherwise bottom-of-the-barrel films mass success based on a familiar name alone, which is likely what Universal 1440 is going for here.
Oh, you don’t know Universal 1440? They’re basically Universal’s used car salesman of the film industry – making low-quality straight-to-video sequels in hopes of capitalizing on a previously popular franchise, and Doom Annihilation looks to continue that trend.. Over the past decade they’ve put out some real bangers including Benchwarmers 2: Breaking Balls (which is on the high end of the studio’s IMDb ratings), The Scorpion King: Book of Souls (the 5th in the franchise), Tremors: A Cold Day in Hell (6th in the franchise), and last month’s smash hit, Grand-Daddy Day Care.
There’s no information regarding what platform it’ll be available on, nor is there a release date aside from “this fall.” This reboot doesn’t have the allure of The Rock’s budding film career or Karl Urban’s particularly emotive eyebrows, but director Tony Giglio promises a faithful adaptation by revealing that this film’s demons are indeed from Hell itself in the trailer, despite looking almost exactly like the monsters from the first film. I look forward to someone asking me if I’ve seen it, responding with a negative, and then saying they haven’t either later this year. At least Doom Eternal is dropping this year as well (for PC, PS4 and Xbox One) and looks like it’ll more than makeup for the sins of the series’ film adaptations.
SOURCE: Polygon