The main reasons for seeing 'Doom Runners' were my undying love for Tim Curry and whether it would do anything fresh or exciting with an idea that's very old and overused.
'Doom Runners' does just about have enough to keep it watchable and there's certainly far worse ways to spend your time, but to me to say that 'Doom Runners' is particularly good is not being honest. Children are much more likely to find more value in 'Doom Runners' than adults, whereas while enjoying Tim Curry's performance adults may find it painful to sit through.
Credit is due in that it is not something where no effort is made, there are flashes throughout where one can see that they were trying. If anything, the film tried too hard and ended up not executing what could have been decent if undemanding stuff properly. Just for the record, regarding the above paragraph and the last sentence, as an adult it wasn't painful to sit through for me but it was very difficult to ignore the faults.
Best thing about 'Doom Runners' is Curry. And no, this is not hero worship, and this is not saying that he has never done a bad film and has never been bad. The former couldn't be further from the truth and there are a few not so good performances of his but most of the time he is good to fantastic and has been the best thing in less than good stuff numerous times. Cutting to the chase, Curry is clearly having the time of his life here, chewing the scenery to fun effect while also succeeding in being a sinister threat.
He isn't the only thing that's good though. The two lead child performances from Bradley Pierce and Lena Moreno are appealing and do well in conveying the children's conflicts. Generally the acting is not too bad at all. The scenery is beautiful and lighting atmospheric, while the music score is fun enough. A few interesting ideas here and there too.
On the other hand, 'Doom Runners' does strive to make an old idea fresh and exciting, and while there is some exciting action everything is just too blatantly predictable and suffering from a complete lack of originality from the get go to succeed at freshness, that one can write down what will happen what would happen a minute or two later about a minute or two ahead. The characters are as stereotypical as they come, and the script is often cheesy and cheesy, while Curry enjoys his lines a few seem to be making nods to 'Rocky Horror' and comes over clumsily.
Everything feels too busy and over-stuffed, and there are parts that are very vague or irrelevant, complete with the odd dose of jarring sentimentality and far too many suspension of disbelief moments that veer on the wrong side of absurd that it's laughable. Scenery aside, 'Doom Runners' looks on the cheap side with run-of-the-mill photography and slapdash effects.
The narration just came over as unnecessary, overused and over-explanatory, three of the biggest traps that narration can fall into and ones that are frequently fallen into (though there are exceptions, in recent years 'Gone Girl' used narration/voice over brilliantly), and delivered in a lifelessly deadpan fashion.
In summary, tolerable and watchable but a long way from being good, let alone great. 4/10 Bethany Cox
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