Karl Urban’s transformation from supporting roles to leading man is marked by his journey through iconic video game adaptations, culminating in his role as Johnny Cage.
20 Years Before Becoming Johnny Cage, Karl Urban Headlined Another Legendary Video Game on the Big Screen
After years of playing supporting characters in major studio blockbusters, Karl Urban has finally hit his stride as a leading man. Roles in 2012’s Dredd and his series part as Billy Butcher on Prime Video’s The Boys have given him the gritty action persona credibility that had long eluded him. As Urban is set to headline Mortal Kombat II as legendary action star Johnny Cage, the sequel is a great opportunity to atone for his earlier video game movie adaptation misfire: Doom.
20 years before he donned Johnny Cage’s shades, Urban was out on Mars battling spade demons with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in the sci-fi thriller based on the megapopular id Software first-person shooter hit from the ‘90s. The highly anticipated blockbuster directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak (Romeo Must Die) was met with criticism, scoring an 18% rotten score on Rotten Tomatoes, and ultimately failed to recoup its $70 million production budget. Despite falling into the trend of bad licensed game-to-movie adaptations, Doom managed to bear fruit with some delightful fan service as well as Urban cutting his leading man teeth against Johnson’s subverted hero.
How Different Is ‘Doom’ From the Video Game?
Though the original 1993 game was a simplistic tale of a no-name space marine battling demons from Hell against the backdrop of Mars, the movie drops the Hell angle completely. A group of science researchers from the Union Aerospace Corporation, including UAC employee Dr. Sam Grimm (Rosamund Pike) is attacked on the planet while studying a lost city in a wormhole. A team of eight space marines led by Sarge (Johnson) discovers the distress signal from Mars and uses the portal called “the Ark” to teleport onto the planet to find survivors and retrieve precious research data.
One of the marines, “Reaper” Grimm (Urban), has a personal stake in the mission due to his sister being in jeopardy. Upon relocating her, Reaper finds out that the site of the lost city has reopened, causing genetically enhanced creatures to appear. As these creatures take out the marines and remaining scientists one by one, Reaper uncovers a greater conspiracy within the UAC’s plans, and Sarge’s orders are not what they seem.
Karl Urban Was Still Proving He Could Be a Credible Action Hero
Urban was still a star in the making at the time of Doom’s release, having already established supporting character roles in The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Riddick, and The Bourne Supremacy. His role as Reaper played second fiddle to Johnson’s Sarge in what appeared to be Predator in outer space. But upon Doom’s second act twist, Reaper becomes the unlikely hero. This was something not all that surprising to see because of the inclusion of Pike as Urban’s sibling. A sympathetic backstory was hardly enough for the actor to make Reaper more compelling than the one-dimensional way he’s written in the script. Doom was Johnson’s star vehicle due to his charismatic persona in wrestling, and that clouds over almost all of Urban’s scenes.
Though he was hardly as charismatic as the wrestling icon, Urban’s performance captured the straight-laced nature of the unnamed space marine from the video games. No fancy one-liners and cocky attitude like Butcher from The Boys. He was more in line with the silent, stoic nature of Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo. His contrast with Johnson is apparent in the minutes right before their climactic showdown. Where Johnson exaggerates his dialogue and sinister nature, Urban takes a more natural approach to playing an exhausted yet determined hero with calm subtlety. While Reaper is not as gruff as Dredd, you can see early traces of Urban’s rugged action persona, which he embraced later in his career.
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‘Doom’ Has Plenty of Fan Service Despite Its Shortcomings
Doom largely suffers from its lack of faithfulness to the games, as well as the disappointing bait-and-switch with Johnson’s character. However, there’s plenty of fan service paid, thanks in part to Doom’s R rating, which was appropriate given the controversial violent content of the game. The use of the BFG weapon by Johnson, as well as creatures inspired by the game like Pinky, goes much further than tone-deaf adaptations of Super Mario Bros. and Double Dragon. But Doom’s biggest highlight is Reaper’s four-minute POV sequence of battling the creatures with the game’s signature weapons, including his bladed ring. Sure, the gimmick has been expanded and improved upon in later action pictures like Hardcore Henry. Yet, it’s the only moment that any gamer dreaming of a Doom movie can get wish fulfillment from.
Doom was not Urban and Johnson’s finest hour at the box office. But they still managed to attempt to please devoted fans of the game despite the creative shortcomings. The Boys actor, in particular, was still finding his way among the ranks of next-generation action stars like Johnson, Vin Diesel, and Jason Statham. Only now does he have a shot at redemption in, ironically, another adaptation of an iconic video game.
Doom is streaming on Prime Video in the US.
