Doom

After finding a portal to Mars, a group of futuristic archaeologist are trying to find out what happened to the civilization that built it. Soon, it's discovered that a synthetic gene has created superhuman healing traits and these creatures intend to send the facility and its inhabitants to their Doom. Based on the video game by ID Software.

Includes most of the same special features as on the DVD, comprising of the 11-minute Basic Training featurette, a six-minute Rock Formation make-up highlight, an 11-minute look at Stan Winston's Master Monster Makers, a six-minute breakdown of—quite possibly the coolest sequence in the movie—the First Person Shooter Sequence, a 15-minute look at the beginning of the DOOM Nation in the 1990s, a seven-minute Game On hints highlight. Thankfully, there are no up front ads! The menu is accessible while the movie is still playing.

As with the previously released DVD, viewing in a completely blackened room is highly recommended for this title, as the picture can be, appropriately, very dark. And the 2.35:1 HD DVD is perfectly capable of delivering the visuals in the darkest of scenes. Sharpness, details, and fine textures are exemplary. Color saturation is perfectly balanced, with vibrant hues piercing through the darkness. Blacks are almost always deep and endless, although some scenes appear slightly milky. The picture is clean and solid, with virtually no compression problems (occasionally noticed in camera pans if you are really looking for them). (Suzanne Hodges)

With impressive articulation across the frequency range, the benefits of the higher resolution provided by the Dolby® Digital•Plus codec can immediately be heard. The mix can be fully engaging at times, but for much of the presentation the front and rear fields sound disjunct, without the side-wall imaging that is necessary to create a realistic 360-degree soundstage. The surround stage is generally at much lower levels than the front stage, but occasional effects directed out of the surrounds—while not imaged across the stage—are at the same level and tonality as effects delivered through the front channels. Dialogue is directionalized when a subject moves off screen while talking. The first-person shooter sequence is mixed interestingly, with dialogue placed in the rear channels (although center surround imaging is not as consistent as it should be). This is definitely a title that would benefit from a matrix or discrete sixth full-range channel in the center surround position. Like the initial Warner releases (but not nearly by the same amount), this soundtrack is encoded at noticeably lower levels than the Dolby Digital track on the original DVD release. (Danny Richelieu)