Ahem, my deep personal Doom analysis. Originally written for a different, non-FF website but anyways...
Doom was handled VERY, VERY well in this movie. The first time we see him is a glimpse BUT it's made awesome because first we see a tiny mediaevil village with a castle on a hill behind it and a caption informs us that this is "HASSENSTADT- LATVERIA". This in itself is BRILLIANT! It's Latveria! It looks EXACTLY like the comics for this second! And he has a CASTLE! Already we're fifty times more Doom-like than movie one! And Doom hasn't even done anything! AND THEY GOT THE LATVERIAN CAPITAL'S NAME RIGHT!
Second appearance, he kills a minion. Of course he does. He's Doctor Doom. Again, So Doom-like- kills a minion for being too slow. In fact Darth Freaking Vader riffed this from Doom.
Third is the best so far. We see lots of monitors, TV screens displaying events, the Surfer etc... and in the centre of all this, in a chair at a control pad, rotating is the green hooded and caped figure of Doctor Doom! AWESOME! VERY COMIC-LIKE! Only slightly spoiled by his lack of a mask.
Cut to later. Blah blah, Doom gets owned by the Surfer, blah. After healing, returns in human form. His scenes in this form are many and...er...distracting. Okay so I dislike him being in human., His dialogue is good ("Just so we're clear, I hate you all.") He no longer loves Sue which is a big plus, and little use of electricity. He's too much of a lackey in this section but he has his own scheme. He's also blatantly evil. I'm serious, the guy should be twirling a moustache. He's making his own devices in the corner, standing there practically knitting his fingers together in glee and cackling. It's great!
Then the main event. Whoah, ZAPS the General and his aides. We cut away and when we cut back... YES! DOOM IS IN THE ARMOUR! OH YES! Not perfect comic accurate but EXTREMELY close, with a very personal touch and he's- GAH! It's just DOCTOR DOOM on the screen for the first time! Gets on the Surfboard, disintegrates the general and away he goes. Cue BRILLIANT air battle as Doom throws the great wall of China at them and totally owns the F4 while in awesome outfit. He also speaks little, which is a big plus after "Marco... Polo!" in movie one.
AND THEN IT HAPPENS!
Reed: "Victor! We have to get the surfboard! You have to-"
Doom: "Come and get it, RICHARDS!"
RICHARDS! HE SAID RICHARDS! HE SAID RICHARDS! OH YES! HE SAID IT! At this exact moment I know.... this is Doom. All is well. He flies around more, causes more chaos, has a brilliant part where he totally owns them all again while saying "Time for a spin!" which actually works as a quip. He is then defeated in an EXTREMELY undignified way. There is a cool but way too short battle with super-powered-up Johnny, he loses the board, gets smacked by a wrecking ball and falls into a river. And never mentioned again. Ah well, it was good while it lasted.
So for Doom alone, the movie gets a 9 out of 10. For just the last ten minutes. Sure it was way too short but it was DOOM. Now if he returns again he can return as full Doom from the start! Hassenstadt! Monitors watching things! Behind the scenes plotting! betrayals! Power stealing! RICHARDS! IT'S DOCTOR FREAKING DOOM, BABY! After the crap Norman Osborn rip-off of movie one we are at the real things. The only disappointment here was his lack of much motive beyond "Get power. Kill 4." He's also still a bit 2d and does not yet rule Latveria but he's getting there.
So I want to see him return in 3 now. Preferably return by stepping into the UN in full armour, already Lord of Latveria. But this was MUCH better than I anticipated even after the novel.
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