I had fewer problems with Doom than I thought I was going to have. I know, I know, they made changes. But BATMAN BEGINS dropped Talia, The Lazarus Pits out of Ra's Al Ghul's character arc and made him Bruce Wayne's mentor and the reason Bruce becomes something terrifying, etc. To fit most characters into films, you have to make some changes most of the time. I figure I can swallow some changes to Doom, if the character still works. And it did.
For some reason a lot of people seem to hate the movie version of Doom, and though I am very familiar with the comic book version, I'm really not sure why. This is a movie. If you didn't realize going in that this was a MOVIE version of The Four and a movie version of Doom, then you're probably really disappointed. But honestly, what did some of you expect? To see Dr. Doom be the only villain in history who ISN'T changed for the film version? It's not like he was watered down. If anything, his character was stronger than it was when he first appeared in the comics.
Victor Von Doom is basically a bastard in FANTASTIC FOUR. He's just an *******, and it's fairly evident. But he's one of those people who succeeds despite being an ******* and probably a bad person, so you hate him even more right from the start, despite his attempts at charm and polish. He doesn't just turn evil, though, and I like that. There's a kind of gradual progression towards that, where his problems build and build and build, and his worries and stresses increase, and then, he realizes that he's mostly lost everything he ever had and ever wanted, and ties that into it being The Four's fault, and then he decides he wants revenge. That's really simplifying what we see onscreen, actually, as there are quite a few scenes of him developing into more the Doom we know, but nevertheless a pretty good villain arc for a film with four other major characters to develop, I thought. And then he becomes Doom. And while his dialogue is a little lousy in places (good in others), he's even more of a bastard. He starts burning holes through people and breaking necks. Not because he hates them or is just pure evil, but more because he can now, because it suits his ends. He puts on the mask (a good reason for a costume piece, actually, even if the rest isn't explained), and he does what any man who owned a ton of weapons and needed specialized ones would do. He goes and gets them. And then he tricks Ben into changing himself back, he uses his heat seaking missle on Johnny Storm, he freezes Reed (a little corny, but it worked when it happened to Plastic Man, and it's fairly sadistic), beats the crap out of the woman he once loved, and then he shows you why he's one of the most dangerous comic book villains in a physical way with the final battle.
A perfect villain? No. Everything Doom has ever been? No. But no, and I mean NO comic book character you will ever see can be everything they've always been in the comics in one film. Doom is no exception, and rather than just send him packing to clear the way for, say, Galactus (yeah. right.), they send him packing in a very cool coda that implies that we will see him in all his glory soon enough...the castle, Latveria, world domination aspirations, even more hatred of The Fantastic Four...and that felt good. I don't think they nailed it. But I think they presented a pretty darn good villain regardless.
