Zachary FenellSilent Hill
February 23rd 2009 16:49
Silent Hill, 2006
It shouldn't be that hard. In a perfect world, the two formats share a lot of the same strengths. Characters are faced with particular challenges, and they grow and transform throughout the unfolding story until they meet the greatest of all challenges and attempt to overcome the odds. The difference is, of course, that video games are interactive, so it's up to you whether the character succeeds or fails. That, and you can always start the level over.
There are key differences, though, in what makes the experience good or even just interesting: When you play a video game, you know that the bogeyman is going to jump out or that you have to go into every single room to make sure that you have all of the pieces to your adventure - and this is your choice. When you watch a movie, you aren't the one making the decisions on which door to open up, but you assume that the characters at least demonstrate some kind of real-world common sense.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, was the problem I had with Silent Hill.
This movie taught me that I have absolutely no sympathy or compassion for stupid decisions. "Hey, my kid's trying to walk off a cliff, let's take her to a ghost town that could kill her!" How do we know it could kill her? It's on the internet that the town is suffused with toxic fumes! Maybe the problem is that we had no further set-up before this point. Maybe they had already tried various types of therapy - I mean, besides the ubiquitous "medication" that apparently all movie kids have to be on. Maybe there was some kind of conversation about this that ended up on the cutting room floor. Who knows? Not us, because we're left grimacing at this string of ridiculously self-destructive choices, secretly hoping that she gets what she is obviously asking for and just dies already. She's not strong, she's not smart, and we don't care anyway.
Don't get me wrong: the imagery and special effects were especially disturbing and scary. Even just the individual shots of the various creatures chasing the characters was skin-crawling, and if that's what you're in it for, you'll find it in spades. But the whole movie - even up to the gratuitously violent ending - was really just an excuse to show off the 133T S|<1LL8 of the CG and makeup departments. The story got left behind somewhere around the second or third writers' meeting, I'm guessing.
I wanted so much to like this more than I did.
3 Stars
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Comment by bperyea
Once again, a film with so much promise and so much possibility, killed by lack of vision and laziness on the part of everyone except CGI and makeup.
Thanks for the posting.
Comment by Bob Peryea
Cinema XYZ