Review of Silent Hill (2006) by Silentone — 10 Oct 2006

Silent Hill can certainly defy Mortal Kombat as the best VG adaptation but it is far from being the great cinematographic masterpiece it could have been. A lot of horror and psychological movies are superior and it is sad to see that films like Jacob's Ladder and Twelve Monkeys are more "Silent hillish" than Gans's flick.

The main problem is, instead on focusing on a solid story and putting references here and there, Gans does the opposite. He tries to put as many references as possible and links the whole in a more or less ambiguous manner.

I cannot say however that he does not know what Silent Hill is. However, I liked (not loved) this movie even if it is not going to mark a lot of minds and it will eventually be forgotten with time. [***SPOILERS***] For me the main positive thing is the absence of a Mary Sue, something that pissed me off a lot in Resident Evil and Tomb Raider.

Of course there is Cybil but at least she got beaten up and expressed negative emotions (ie she does not go fighting like if she was doing her shopping and she does show stressful behavior) Gans said he got older since Le pacte des loups (which I found to be more mature).

IMO, he is still a kid. He seems to have focused more on the sentence " I'm putting this because fans will love it" than on the making of a movie. Running 3/4 of the movie and resolving clues might be interesting in a VG.

In a movie, we need a story and character development. Most of the critics agree on a point. Silent Hill has beautiful images and camera angles. I wouldn't be surprised if Dan Laustsen or Carol Spier got nominated for an award.

However, if most of the critics say they don't understand the story, it is because the dialogue and the editing do not offer that much to allow the moviegoer to care enough for the characters. And a Silent Hill with an average story hurts.

And it hurts a lot. Despite it all, 7/10. I can discuss this movie negatively for hours but there is that je ne sais quoi that made this movie entertaining to my eyes. If there is a 2-disc DVD coming up in 2007, I'd probably buy it.