Gans' Gob Of Grandoise Gamey Genius Undone By Avary's Asinine Articulations

Rating: 7/10 (23 June 2006)

What a disappointment. Or not. What the hell is Silent Hill, anyway?
Silent Hill is the best video game adaptation made so far. If anyone makes a list of the ten greatest images in the history of horror films, if this doesn't have at least one spot on there, then there is no such thing as justice. This movie looks fantastic. The set design by Cronenberg Woman is astounding and evocative, the cinematography is pretty much perfect, the creature effects are magnificent, the direction is amazingly confident.
Having said that, it just doesn't connect.
The script, by Roger Avary, seems to be attempting to sound like a video game. In other words, the dialogue is mostly not so good at all. Almost all of the dialogue feels off, both in delivery and in the actual writing. While the movie is going for a surreal, dream-like feeling, the middle section has a few major groaners, once it turns into downright flat exposition it gets next to impossible to stay in the movie. Of course Christophe Gans, a fellow whose visual skill is impeccable in my opinion, thought the script was great, but that's because he speaks English as a second, or maybe even third language.
Anyway, the exposition part is done in this cool-looking flashback, but it's totally unnecessary. As is Boromir of Gondor even being in the movie. The movie's central problem is that its story, while initially intriguing (that's because there really isn't much of any for the first hour, just wandering), just doesn't work. It doesn't work because it doesn't connect emotionally with the audience. Even when it has the potential to, it segues into its middle hour, which is by far the worst part of the movie.
But the problem with calling the movie bad is that it's way too damn cool. I think someone else said that it's good in all the right places and bad in all the wrong ones. It's the very definition of an uneven movie. There is so much right in this movie. The soundtrack, from the games, is brilliant. And as I said, the way everything is visualized is fantastic, although the parts where the monsters melt into ash is a bit excessive and unnecessary.
A lot of people, mainly the ones who haven't played the games, will have no idea what is going on. This is only partially the fault of the filmmakers, because the studio's handling of the movie attracted the wrong crowd. It got teenage guys taking their girlfriends to a scary movie on Friday nights, and by not screening it for critics in the US it got the grouchy, fairly unintellectual Saturday critics, who totally missed the point, or at least the good parts.
The studio's handling of it is worse than any element of the movie, except maybe the part where Radha Mitchell (who is pretty terrific, if slightly awkward due to accent change) and Laurie Holden (who plays the cop who wears sunglasses 24 hours a day and who every critic thinks is a lesbian because she wears tight pants and has short hair) are walking down the street: Laurie Holden:They used to say this town was haunted. Radha Mitchell:It looks like they were right.
Except for that part, the studio's handling of it is much, much worse than the worst parts of this movie.
I dearly hope that Silent Hill is successful enough for a sequel to be produced, because although it's definitely a love-it-or-hate-it affair (sometimes both at the same time), if Gans and company realized the mistakes they made the first time, the Silent Hill universe still holds bountiful possibilities.