Haven't read the whole thread, but, having read the novel, and being a big Doom fan, I can assure you they sure as **** didn't get it.
Doom is not Doom, and not just in name. In personality also. There is so little of Doom in there, it's depressing. I've discussed this so many times i've lost count. If people think he's faithful, then they don't know enough about him. Heck, if they think he's better, then they better go and read some of the great comics with Doom to see why their opinion might change pretty fast on the matter. Doom is not just a great villain, he's by and FAR the greatest villain.
Here's the old review I made about how Doom was portrayed in the book, since I have no envy to repeat myself, other than by quoting myself, of course:
Now, I had lost all hopes nearly a year ago. Having read the Frost script (which, btw, is nearly THE exact same as the newest movie, nearly nothing has changed), I was heavily disappointed by how Doom acted, his origin, and his powers. But, Lightning Strikez! gave me hopes. He's always been great doing so (and he should always continue to ) by providing us exemples as to why Doom from the movie wouldn't be THAT far away. Unfortunately, the exemples he gave were all that made Doom remotely close to his comic self.
Victor is madly in love with Sue, even if he often tries to deny it. Sure, when he goes ga-ga crazy, he begins to totally hate her, but that's something else (since he's crazy). The thing here, is that Victor, before his "accident" isn't Doom at all. Doom should always be Doom, even before his accident.
Here, he isn't. He's a ruthless businessman, who fought to be where he is, but that... isn't even CLOSE to Doom's dreams. He should see far much further than he does. When he goes crazy, he makes a reference to Leonard (his kind of secretary) about how he should think bigger. But, never (aside from here) does he ever even ATTEMP to show us (or try) to want something global, other than money and "more electricity".
Another thing. Since Doom was always Doom in the comics, he didn't think much bigger when he had his accident. He already wanted more. Here, we are led to believe that he was "human" before, but after his accident, someone acting like Doom can only be "crazy". That's what he is in the movie. A crazy metal dude. He's not a true "God among manking", he's a freak of nature that goes on a rampage, a lot like Electro himself often do. He's just NOT Doom. Thinking about it, his situation is simular to that of Norman Osborn in the first spiderman movie. Both got crazy after their accident, explaining why they were "eviiiIIiiil", which is lame, imo, since Doom was always much more than just evil. But here, that's all he is when he become "Doctor Doom"... (just the fact that he become Doctor Doom is horrible, since he should always have been himself).
And worse, much worse than all of that, he's not even HALF the scientific mind Richard his. What made Doom SUCH A GREAT villain (or heck, more than a villain) was his intellect. Here, sure, he's intelligent, manipulative, but so much less than Reed. Doom being anything less than Reed's equal (much less not even half his genius) is absolutely atrocious. Heck, Doom never does anything by himself. He always hired scientist and doctors to make his discoveries. There's even a scene (showed in the trailer), when he has to go to a doctor to know what is happening to him. MY GOD. We are talking about DOOM here. He would NEVER ask someone's else opinion, much less about his condition, when he himself could analyse it much better (alas, not here, though). For he is suppose to be DOOM. And DOOM is above all.
At the end, when he loses and become a living statue, the writers had the golden possibility to have Doom cry a last "RiiiIIIIIiiiichard". I mean, when I got there, I though it was the PERFECT PLACE. But no, instead he seems to cry a "noooooOOooooooooo" (and by all that is in the bottom of my holy rectum, I hope it's not as horrible as the one Vader cries at the end of ROTS).
I could have forgiven his relation to Sue, his mutant powers, but NOT what made him superior to all villains, his INTELLECT. That, imo, is a change I cannot forgive, which is stupid, and makes me cringe just thinking about it.
But that's not all. I won't go into his powers, and all, since we've all discussed that dozen of times here, but I want to address the Sue/Victor relationship.
It's a mess, imo. Lightning said that Doom never truly cared about Sue. Having read the book, i'd say he was wrong (sorry). Doom cared about Sue, a lot, even if he seems to want to not accept it. When she goes in Reed's arms, he is hurted a lot. But, all this really does is make Sue a bad character, imo. Really, she goes out two years with Victor. She probably fell "something" for him, for godsake. Two years. And yet, the instant Reed comes back, she runs in his arms. That, no problem here. She loved the dude even more than the old doctor. It's understandable. But, once Reed was back, she stopped caring about Victor. She didn't even noticed he existed anymore. I mean, when everything goes wrong for him, she doesn't even think about him. He could have died she wouldn't even have cared. That makes her something much closer to a bad girl (villain here) than a hero, imo. Victor goes crazy, and that's in part due to how she left him, and pull a finger on him, without no other reason than that she loved another man more. She completely left him, without even truly telling him how she truly felt about all of this. When he becomes a statue, at the very end, she's all too happy to be "discarded" of her ex-boyfriend, like some mean 16 years old adolescent on a rampage.
That's a pretty bad reason, imo. Exactly the kind of person I could never respect. That's the kind of character i'm going to root for in theatre ? Sure, i wanted the FF to win when I read the book, but not Sue. Victor could have fried her i'd have been relieved. Here's hoping Jessica Alba's so good she'll make me think otherwise.
So, Sue's a pretty messed up character here , and Doom's one of the worst adaptation possible of the greatest villain there is.
But, imo, movie Doom is still a great villain. He's easily, just after Magneto, the second best superhero movie villain. Easily. If he had been faithful, he would have took the first place without any difficulty, but oh well. A 10% faithful Doom is still better than most villains.
All in all, a month or two after writing that, when I rethink about it, I only have disgust about that awful adaptation. It's up there with CINO.
Bleh, I hate fox and marvel. Destroying the best villain there is.
If you people want to understand why Doom's such a great villain, unlike his movie counterpart, go read Secret war, or the Doom 2099 by Warren Ellis, or the three part storyarc by Chuck Dixon named "DOOM". I'd recommend those to the ones who don't know him much. Then, well, there is so much more.
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