A mixed bag.

Rating: 6/10 (18 August 2005)

"The Doors" is one of my all-time favorite bands, I love just about every one of their songs, most of all "Light My Fire," "Break On Through," "Peace Frog," "The End," "L.A. Woman," "Roadhouse Blues" and so on and so forth.
This movie doesn't do the band justice. It's all about Jim Morrison, played by Val Kilmer. It should have just been called "Jim: The Druggish Semi-True Biography." It's all about visual style, and little substance. Even for a film about Jim, it's not very well-made.
Jim's childhood is almost totally ignored - there's an opening sequence about an Indian spirit carrying over into his soul, but that's it. His lover back in the '60s, a self-proclaimed "witch," says on the DVD that the "real Jim Morrison" she knew and loved is "not in this movie." Oliver Stone even complains that he felt Meg Ryan's performance as Jim's wife was too self-conscious and unconvincing. I totally agree. As Stone points out, she's too self-aware -- she covers her nudity in one scene, and that would have never happened back in the '60s, ESPECIALLY if you were alone, with your husband, in bed.
Val Kilmer sounds and acts the part well but really doesn't look much like Jim. It doesn't matter because he's so convincing through his physicality that his features don't detract from the realism - I never for a moment thought, "It's just Kilmer." It's too bad that such a great performance is wasted on a movie that is just OK. Visually, "The Doors" is superb. It's really trippy, "Apocalypse Now"-style stuff that captures the tone of The Doors, as well as the era itself. It has a few moments of good energy and character exploration, such as Jim's exposure to a crowd shortly before his death.
But overall Stone focuses on the visual too much and not enough on the story itself. The soundtrack rocks, the cinematography and outer layer of the film is amazing - but that's about it.
Hopefully someone will come along in the future and match the visuals of this film, but add a heart and soul - after all, that's what Morrison was most famous for during his time, and it's just a little ironic that the film lacks passion and soul.