VERY pleasantly surprised. An Excellent movie that stands on its own

Rating: 8/10 (27 April 2006)

I just finished watching Silent Hill and was VERY impressed. I cant see how anyone would think it "sucked". They captured the dark essence of the games perfectly. What I was most impressed by was the fact that they didn't take the sellout route that pretty much every video game movie does. They didn't simply sell out and make a shallow loosely tied game with cheap scares. In fact there were several moments where I was sure they were going to do the cheap "monster jumping out of the darkness" or "body suddenly leaping up" (like when she was digging in the corpses mouth) scare but they didn't.
This movie actually had some essence and a gripping plot. Insane visuals, believable acting, intriguing plot, appropriate gore (rather than just for random shock value). I think it was very well done. this isn't simply the best "video game movie" I've seen, this is an excellent horror movie in its own right and stands on its own with or without the Silent Hill name. I was NOT disappointed in any way. I had low expectations and was very pleasantly surprised. It stays very close to the source material as well.
Frankly I don't see how any fans of the series are disappointed. Maybe they got something different from the games. I myself was more drawn to the story (I actually enjoyed the cut-scenes far more than the game-play) and for me this totally captured what I loved about the games.No offense to some of the others "reviewers" but I hope this review was a little more informative than "it uh, like kinda sucked but was like, kinda cool too" Reviews like that (pro or con) just kind of make my skin crawl.