Second thoughts about the film

[gustavopi]

Five years later... Not just because the time but next year the sequel is coming. Yesterday was "All Souls' Day" holiday here (I believe is Halloween at north hemisphere): such a good day to see Silent Hill again! The bluray version wasn't launched here so open an exception to me and get a HD version (bluray rip) to see in a good LED TV. I wanna test my own opinions about the movie after all these years.



Since 2006, game-movies became a even bigger industry and see this one again was a contrasting experience comparing with other ones. I can't remember about another one with so elaborated script, great photographic work, great cast performance (including kids), dialogs, etc.. My second thoughts are even better! It's not an easy adaptation to be made, I cannot see how could be better, following the producers opinion since this is the director's cut - not changes were ever made. This movie didn't got a good rate as I seen, but I think is just because is a game-movie, and movie critics don't like the kind or don't understand at all. I rate it the same as "The Ring".
But I'll not give my opinion about a possible continuation (a real sequel, resuming from the end of this one) because people here get offended or think I'm trolling...

[KiramidHead]

Pyramid Head wants a high five.

[emma]

Pyramid Head wants a high five.

*gives a high five back for Pyramid Head so he won't bothering us now!O.O..
XD

[keeps]

ill always like it based on tideland connections

thats my personal obsession

[gustavopi]

What is "tideland connections"?

[gustavopi]

Pyramid Head wants a high five.

*gives a high five back for Pyramid Head so he won't bothering us now!O.O..
XD

Not now, but maybe in next year...

[emma]

Pyramid Head wants a high five.

*gives a high five back for Pyramid Head so he won't bothering us now!O.O..
XD

Not now, but maybe in next year...

[JaneTheNurse]

"Wait! You forgot this skin! Here, I'll just toss it to you!"

[The Gentleman]

Interesting, yesterday my sister wanted some in-game Silent Hill pictures for her art project in school. I obliged and when she was using them some people in her class looked over and said "is that the film?".

I think it's good that the film drew more publicity for the series. My sister told 'em I was a fan and that it was actually based off a game series.

[emma]

i bet your sis really have fun there in her school i guess it sounds very interesting:)! to say something about the film and silent hill games at the school !

[gustavopi]

Interesting, yesterday my sister wanted some in-game Silent Hill pictures for her art project in school. I obliged and when she was using them some people in her class looked over and said "is that the film?".

I think it's good that the film drew more publicity for the series. My sister told 'em I was a fan and that it was actually based off a game series.

May I ask what's the subject of the class?

[The Gentleman]

Interesting, yesterday my sister wanted some in-game Silent Hill pictures for her art project in school. I obliged and when she was using them some people in her class looked over and said "is that the film?".

I think it's good that the film drew more publicity for the series. My sister told 'em I was a fan and that it was actually based off a game series.

May I ask what's the subject of the class?

Art.

[gustavopi]

Cool! I would say that Silent Hill is kind Pop Art. The design of the movie, as the game, is still "clean" besides a lot of garbage. The fog help in this intention. I'm worry about the sequel, Basset was not so careful with Solomon Kane, let's see what he learn from the first Silent Hill to made the next one.

[mumbler]

I'm gonna have to partly agree with you. They did a great job with things like set design, make-up, acting, etc. Frankly the plot is the only part where they were really taking the piss. Too bad this inevitably ruined the rest of the film as well. No matter how you look at it, there's a complete lack of loyalty to source material and even that aside, the plot doesn't even stand on its own, being riddled with plot holes.

Still with the exception of the director and writer I suppose none of this is the film crew's fault, so I'm gonna commend them for doing such a stellar job and at the same time express my condolences.

[gustavopi]

I saw an interview with them and they ask for forgiveness about the script, but one thing is a game, another is a movie - different media. It seams they hasn't redemption from fans... well, this is Silent Hill's bad ending!

[JaneTheNurse]

I personally would not have enjoyed watching Harry solve puzzles and shoot enemy after enemy and miss air screamer after air screamer, even in a live action format. Therefore I'm not too concerned about details that pertain to "it wasn't like the game at all."

It's a movie about a troubled girl and her adoptive parent who get pulled into some weird, crazy shit in a town that has a lot of weird, crazy shit going on.

Also pyramid head.

All of these things are fine with me, even (especially) after learning all about the games and seeing how all the games play out.

[Mercury]

I agree with the OP. This is really one of--if not the--best video game adaptations I've seen. The film had really great visuals too. It's look down on a lot, but it actually did really well all things considered.

[Brispir]

I thought the movie was great, but I went into it thinking it was going to suck. In my experience, movies based on video games almost ALWAYS suck. The Street Fighter movie is probably the best example of this, which brings something really terrifying to mind.... I hope they don't make Silent Hill The Movie The Game like they did with Street Fighter.

[gustavopi]

Me too. I saw the movie because a friend lent me the DVD - and it was a good surprise!

The movie also got some great visual technics. We (me and some friends) were talking about the last Harry Potter's movie, how it is too dark all the time. In Silent Hill, the insertions of sequences of real word give us more impact when the otherworld come back. Int Brazil, it is considered the very best adaptation of a game to the cinema.

[Terramax]

My first thoughts about the film when seeing it in the cinema was 'it looks good, but everything else is terrible'.

Thoughts upon second viewing is that it's near unwatchable. Utterly cringeworthy. The game gave me a sense of wonder amongst the confusion. The film made me wonder why it was so confusing.

The story makes little sense, and is poorly explained in flat, boring conversations. Most shocking is the excessive use of Cheryl in the film. What made Cheryl so affective in the original game is that you barely see her. Just tiny glimpses here and there, which seemed to emphasis Harry's despair, and add that feeling of hopelessness, in that no matter what he did, he gets no closer to finding her. And that's true horror. That feeling that no matter what you do. No matter how hard you try. Even if you achieve the impossible, you [seemingly] still won't survive/ achieve your goal.

The film had none of this.

The game achieves being as unnerving as it is by being subtle. With the real world slowly transcending into the outerworld with us barely noticing it until it happens, whilst the film had the sirens going off like it was on some sort of timetable.

Harry's inclusion seems to be for the single purpose of adding that compulsary 'plot twist' that all horror films were expected to have at that time since The Sixth Sense. Lisa, the nurses, and Pyramid Head were included simply for fan service.

Most of the horror is for cheap thrills and eyecandy, uninspired and without purpose (shown quite clearly at the climactic finale), as opposed to the games which often use violence and horror symbolically and contribute to the morals and messages.

The game was clustrophobic, and made us fear what we couldn't see, but only hear on the radio. The film had the monsters thrown in our faces, mostly set in open areas. When we play Silent Hill we're always alone. In the film we had the wife being helped on several occasions.

The acting is typical Hollywood style, with no real tension or abiguity. Dahlia had the most stupid hair I've seen in a film. The mother and daughter relationship didn't feel natural at all. I guess the beginning scenes leading up to entering Silent Hill was supposed to help form a bond with the pair, but ironically it just highlighted how terrible the acting, and how uninspired the script was. In fact, none of the characters seemed to gel at all, none the least the husband and wife!

Ultimately, I feel offended by the film. It's as if they said 'you know what, Silent Hill fans are as brainless as the zombies in Resident Evil. Who cares how good the script is? As long as it has Pyramid Head in it, they'll pay to watch anything.

That being said, I didn't feel half as angry after I saw what they did to Max Payne...

Now, I wouldn't say Silent Hill is a bad film. But considering the source material it had to draw from, I expected more than an average film. I can understand why those who hadn't played the games before would enjoy it for what it is (although the other people in the cinema that I watched it in seemed to walk out more disappointed than me), but seeing the potential having it being based of such a great game, I know it could've been a better film had it just copied the game's story word for word, I find it unforgivable.

On a side note, people say this isn't as bad as Street Fighter the Movie, but I disagree.

Street Fighter is an arcade fighting game with no emphasis on story. Characters merely had storylines to add humour, and give reward for completing the game. You couldn't take Street Fighter seriously. You have a flying sumo wrestler, a man who's arms stretch 20 feet, a woman that spins upside down like a helicopter, and men who shoot fireballs out of their bare hands - what more could you expect from a film that's based on that?

Silent Hill, on the other hand, has its gameplay and visuals built around its groundbreaking story.The videogame medium was used to heighten the horror experience. Therefore, the film had so much more to work on, hence expectations should automatically be higher.