Review: Silent Hill
Movies are fun and exciting, where we are transported into new worlds and watch interesting things happen to other people. Video games are fun and exciting, where we are transported into new worlds and make interesting things happen to other people. Somehow, these two similar media are completely and utterly unable to intersect. Many video games based on movies are lame retreads of the films' plot, with some extra stuff thrown in for good measure. Lately, these have been getting much better, like King Kong, or Star Wars, or whatever. But movie based on video games? They can't get their act together to save their lives, and for Uwe Boll, he might have to, after a string of crappy-ass game adaptations. Consider this: The best video game movie ever made, according to most, was 1995's Mortal Kombat. And that was not a good movie, by any stretch of the imagination. Gamers have been subjected to such pain and misery when it comes to seeing their favourite games up on the big screen, with such cinematic abominations as: Super Mario Bros., Double Dragon, Street Fighter, Resident Evil, Tomb Raider: Lara Croft, BloodRayne, Doom and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. There may have even been hope for some of these, had they stuck more closely to the events of the games, but probably not.
Which brings us to Silent Hill. The film is based on the first two games of what is now a four-part series. Now, as a disclaimer, the only contact I've had with the Silent Hill games was a demo of SH3 that scared the bajeezus out of me. So forgive me if I base my views on that. Having said that, here goes. This is a pretty good video game movie. It stuck to the overall premise of the game without being a step-by-step plot summary. It was not a horrifying experience that counted on gore and violence to wow the crowd, although it did have a healthy dose of both. It was a nightmarish, suspenseful piece of filmmaking, that, while it didn't scare the bajeezus out of me, it had me properly spooked. The visuals appeared to be a close match to those found within the game, and that's important. It hit pretty much everything you should have in order to have a successful adaptation... everything that is, except the acting.
Radha Mitchell, who you might know from... something, I don't know, plays Rose, a family woman whose adopted daughter has serious issues with sleepwalking and yelling out, "Silent Hill!" Well, it doesn't take long for Rose and Sharon to take off on a day trip. Much to the dismay of her husband, Sean Bean (006 and Boromir), they head off to the site of a catastrophic coal fire, which wiped out the town of Silent Hill, W. Va. 30 odd years ago. On the way, they pull into a gas station where they catch the attention of a motocop, who decides to pursue them. An accident on the road knocks out Rose and awakes to a sky so ashen, you can barely see 20 feet in front of you. But what's that Rose? Sharon's gone? and you need to go look for her? Good thing that cop is there to help out. Basically what follows is a succession of scenes where both Rose and her husband (in different scenes, obviously) discover clues about the fate of the people of Silent Hill, and the creepy goings-on within. Even more basically is a succession of scenes where Rose runs around yelling, "Sharon? Sharon!" Yet more basically still is a succession of scenes.
The acting was kinda goofy, the ending was both frustrating and 'Huh?'-inducing, the visuals were creepy and weird and it didn't leave room for a sequel. All in all, a moderately successful video-game movie. Why can't we have great ones? We may never know, although there are some promising ones in the works, and I can think of a few good ones. Grand Theft Auto is in production, as is SpyHunter, and Halo has Ridley Scott attached. Why not a game of Splinter Cell, or HalfLife, or WarCraft? Maybe a TimeSplitters game with Vin Diesel, or Jak and Daxter with Orlando Bloom and Mike Myers as the voice of Daxter. Maybe not, but the genre can only get better, it can hardly get any worse. Unless Uwe Boll is allowed to keep making movies.
∆∆1/2 of 5
Which brings us to Silent Hill. The film is based on the first two games of what is now a four-part series. Now, as a disclaimer, the only contact I've had with the Silent Hill games was a demo of SH3 that scared the bajeezus out of me. So forgive me if I base my views on that. Having said that, here goes. This is a pretty good video game movie. It stuck to the overall premise of the game without being a step-by-step plot summary. It was not a horrifying experience that counted on gore and violence to wow the crowd, although it did have a healthy dose of both. It was a nightmarish, suspenseful piece of filmmaking, that, while it didn't scare the bajeezus out of me, it had me properly spooked. The visuals appeared to be a close match to those found within the game, and that's important. It hit pretty much everything you should have in order to have a successful adaptation... everything that is, except the acting.
Radha Mitchell, who you might know from... something, I don't know, plays Rose, a family woman whose adopted daughter has serious issues with sleepwalking and yelling out, "Silent Hill!" Well, it doesn't take long for Rose and Sharon to take off on a day trip. Much to the dismay of her husband, Sean Bean (006 and Boromir), they head off to the site of a catastrophic coal fire, which wiped out the town of Silent Hill, W. Va. 30 odd years ago. On the way, they pull into a gas station where they catch the attention of a motocop, who decides to pursue them. An accident on the road knocks out Rose and awakes to a sky so ashen, you can barely see 20 feet in front of you. But what's that Rose? Sharon's gone? and you need to go look for her? Good thing that cop is there to help out. Basically what follows is a succession of scenes where both Rose and her husband (in different scenes, obviously) discover clues about the fate of the people of Silent Hill, and the creepy goings-on within. Even more basically is a succession of scenes where Rose runs around yelling, "Sharon? Sharon!" Yet more basically still is a succession of scenes.
The acting was kinda goofy, the ending was both frustrating and 'Huh?'-inducing, the visuals were creepy and weird and it didn't leave room for a sequel. All in all, a moderately successful video-game movie. Why can't we have great ones? We may never know, although there are some promising ones in the works, and I can think of a few good ones. Grand Theft Auto is in production, as is SpyHunter, and Halo has Ridley Scott attached. Why not a game of Splinter Cell, or HalfLife, or WarCraft? Maybe a TimeSplitters game with Vin Diesel, or Jak and Daxter with Orlando Bloom and Mike Myers as the voice of Daxter. Maybe not, but the genre can only get better, it can hardly get any worse. Unless Uwe Boll is allowed to keep making movies.
∆∆1/2 of 5
posted by The Man in Charge at
4:58 PM
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