Silent Hill film

Re: Silent Hill The Film

Went to see it at the weekend.

I thought it was ok, nothing special.
Out of context it is a mediocre horror film with a decent ending.
When looked at in context, I couldn't help be feel robbed. Very few were the links to the game, and they were all minor details with no real effect on the film's plot.

This film is rated BEST FILM EVER MADE. EVER.

Reason: It has Conehead ripping people in half.

 

Re: Silent Hill 4

under 2 hrs /versus/images/graemlins/frown.gif, i was short by 3 memos lame,

 

Re: Silent Hill Movie Review

Hey gang, just saw the film. Here are my thoughts...

<font color="red">Good</font>:

Excellent visuals, 95% in game soundtrack from 1st 3 installments (yes a good thing). Manages to capture the feel of the Silent Hill series, and oddly surpasses the gore found in the games.

<font color="red">Bad</font>:

Muddled plot (for non-gamers) + slow pacing. You have to be able to give your audience a good story through a character's dialogue/actions, etc. If you have to dedicate a segment to storytelling (as seen here) - you've failed.

The film was a mixed plot of 1 and 3. Some elements of 2 were thrown in, but more as a checkpoint for gamers to reference or nitpick. (pyramid head is a character from part 2 yet makes and appearance as an executioner of some sorts.... his involvement isn't explained at all) The first moments of the film are so faithfully reproduced (from the 1st game) that you have to sit back and nod in approval from a gamer's standpoint. Many of the actor's actions were lifted directly from the game. I've never seen any other video game/movie adaptation come even close. The bad side of this comes in that you've dedicated yourself to a pace that's too slow to follow. Many scenes (as in the game) involve the main character exploring the town in bread crumb fashion - while this may work well for a game's pacing where the player has complete control this leaves our general audience asking questions such as "Why the fuck would she do that?" or "That didn't make any sense, AND WHO THE FUCK IS THAT?"

I'm torn in rating this film because I (as many here) have a dual perception as well as a general bias towards this franchise...



Gamer's Standpoint - A

you just gotta love the faithful reproduction of atmosphere and camera angles.

Moviegoer's Standpoint - D+

Unfortunately too many people leave the theater not understanding the film at all.

 

Re: Silent Hill Movie Review

Yeah, I've heard of this duality between "Film goer" and "Game player" in that there are some things you simply won't get if you don't play the game and just go to watch it as a film.

Well, me and slimadey are going to catch it on Saturday afternoon so we can FINALLY put up a litttle review on it then.

I'm trying to re-play as many of the games possible in the run up...

 

Re: Silent Hill Movie Review

Still can't get passed that bit on SH2 on hard, never mind, I give up, here's a cool map for SH2!

http://www.silenthill.co.za/map/

Watching on Sat with LM, review on Monday.

 

Re: Silent Hill Movie Review

http://psp.ign.com/articles/706/706177p1.html

psp hmmm....

 

Re: Silent Hill Movie Review

Finally seen the SH film on Saturday with LM.

I have to say I was dissapointed loads. To me, it felt like a 'best of' film with 'bits of this' 'bits of that' thrown in at random from the different games. Too much was thrown in/took out almost at random for my liking. All the villagers in the church were pointless and too many 'extra' characters which were unnecessary. The simple fact the main character was female was stupid as well.

The graphical effects were good though and certain bit's were really freaky, with some cool death sequences, albeit Mortal Kombat 'fatality' style.

The big things added that was ridiculous which LM mentioned after the film was the 'ganado' villagers, which I didn't realize at the time. It's like the director played RE4 and thought, 'that's cool', let's bung it in.

The ending worked well, even though it had NOTHING to with a game related ending.

Overall, 2/5 for me. Not complete crap, but close to it.

 

Re: Silent Hill Movie Review

Yeah, FINALLY saw with the film at the weekend with Ade, cinema was bloody full of stupid kids, should have ten foot tossed them out, it was obvious they didn't have a clue about what was going on.

Ok, my opinions.......


POSITIVES

Overall it's the best game-to-film conversion in my eyes yet done, but then again that's not saying much, however it also highlights some of the reasons game-to-film conversions are often very poor.

Excellent use of the SH music (from SH, SH2 and SH3). Any fan would be able to point out the music straight away.

Some great effects. The special effects were handled very well I thought and the sounds/noises in the background etc really worked well.

Silent Hill itself. Very close to the first game, the mist, the fog, the snow (tho in the film it's ash from fires deep below the town (?)). Some cool references to parts from the game.

The intro sequence from the game. Wherby she's chasing Sharon down the alleyway and SH switches to the Otherworld. This was brilliantly done, JUST like in the game, even using the same camera angles. The monsters added weren't the mole-like things and when things go back she wakes up in the bowling alley from SH2 (huh?) but other than that it was great.

The nurses section. This I really loved.

Parts of the school section (before Pyramid Head come in and "Colin").

Lisa's short appearance.

Cybil was well portrayed.



NEGATIVES

Butchered the story completely. Dahlia is now good as opposed to the person who sacrificed Alessa in the fire to raise Samael. Pyramid Head is in it. The lead is a woman instead of Harry Mason. Cheryl is now called Sharon and is aged 9 instead of 7 (huh?). The "cult" town members who follow Christobel and burn people for fear of them being witches. Where the hell did this come from? Like Ade said, to me it seemed like there were almost Ganados from RE4, especially as they run to the Church when th siren starts (like the bell ringing in RE4).

Kauffman was not in it and Lisa hardly played a role at all. The whole story arc of Alessa not being dead but being kept alive by Lisa (this is how I understood it) with the dark and light parts of her spirit split (the good going inside Sharon). Messes with the core story too much.

The fact there are like LOADS of new chars etc all with their side of the story to tell about Silent Hill.

The multiple-worlds of SH. It's fairly well established in the games (SH, SH3) there are 2 worlds of SH. The Normal World and the OtherWorld. But the director has chosen to put another level in and have:

SH empty town, raining, deserted but normal.
SH shrouded in fog, closed off from roads etc...
SH the OtherWorld, the alternate of the fog shrouded world, the dark side of the town.

But the first of these worlds is completely cut off from the other two (which are two sides of a coin). The film ends with Sharon and her mother still trapped in the second world and Sharon's dad trapped in the "normal" first world. Also it's hinted at that Dark Allessa has possessed Sharon (at the end).



So, overall, it's an ok movie but it failed to really impress me as it doesn't really follow the story of SH at all. Some cool things but ultimately too many changes for me to enjoy it that much.

At a push I'd give it 5 Big Stars and 7 Little Stars (57%).

 

Alternate Fake SH1 Ending

Don't know if anyone has seen this, but thought it was funny. Photoshop Ahoy! LOL.

http://amybalot.com/silenthill/1/videos/ambulance.html

 

Re: Alternate Fake SH1 Ending

Damn I can't watch that from my office...

 

Re: Alternate Fake SH1 Ending

I havent clicked but I'm sure that's the fan made ambulance ending. heh.

LM I too noticed her waking up in the bowling alley from SH2. (wtf indeed) Another out of place element was officer Gucci himself - that character is already dead during SH1. (read police station memos)

 

Re: Alternate Fake SH1 Ending

Yeah, it is the Ambulance ending, looks crappy, but gotta give respect, certainly must of time a while to do.

There's another one floating around somewhere to 'Save Lisa' as well I think.

 

You know, I knew the name Gucci from somehwere but just couldn't put my finger on it. Cheers for pointing that out.

Yeah, in that scene I was fully waiting for her to wake up in the Diner and Cybil to walk in but alas it didn't happen and instead she wakes up in the bowling alley from SH2/3 which is right by Toluca lake and the Hospital...so theoretically when she met Alessa she'd actually have returned to about 2 mins walk from the very beginning of where she was in the start of the SH section lol.

One slight thing that annoyed me with the music, they put in Eddy's theme somewhere, the put in the music/noise from where James is descending down that huge flight of stairs below the historical museum near the lake, they put in the "SH2 intro/letter music" etc etc but where the hell was the Forest music and the Room 302 music from SH2?? In my eyes they're one of the two best pieces of music in the game! The Room 302 music would have worked really well in the Alessa revelation scene I think.

 

They used the SH1 intro music to the school boss as well, can't remember where, but it was used somewhere.

But I agree, the Room 302, would have been great in that Alessa scene.

 

Yeah. There was also one piece of music they kept playing at different points in the film but I can't recall from which part of which game it's from.

Killing Time should have been in there too, it's a bloody classic!

 

[ QUOTE ]
LM_Akira said:

Killing Time should have been in there too, it's a bloody classic!

[/ QUOTE ]

Quoted for Truth, the music that HAD to be in the film and would be a great piece for combo videos for different games I think.

 

Everytime I hear that music I just see the polygon shape of Harry running into darkness with the new born baby (soon to be called Heather) in his hands, what an ending.

I could see it now, do a T5 combo video in black and white (like the last meet!) with Killing Time as the music!

 

Yeah, it's the Good + Ending, where you save Kaufmann and Kill Cybill to get that ending with the music, I know cos I've done it SPECIFICALLY to hear the music, that's how cool it is IMHO.

Oh and does anyone notice the Physcho reference at the end? (Before the final boss), it's the SAME design as when Norman Bates dressed as his mum comes out and stabs the reporter. Quite Cool.

And I love the way the Keys in the school for the 'teachers' are band member names for Sonic Youth? Cool IMHO.

One final one LOL, when you come out of the Antique shop there are posters for Carrie (A stephen King reference).

Yes, I have played SH1 far too much LOL. O h and if you leave the Shotgun in the school there is another one in the police station.

 

There is also

REDRUM

written on a wall somehwere in SH, near the school I think.

Yes, it's from The Shining, it's MURDER spelled backwards.