It's Amazing What Happens When a Director Puts Forth a Little Effort!

Rating: 7/10 (22 April 2006)

All the reviews of this movie have either been positive or negative. People seem to either love this movie or hate this movie; I for one am in the middle but leaning more (much more) towards like. Of course going into the movie with the information I had on it is also influencing my review.
Rose cannot accept the knowledge that her daughter Sharon is dying of a fatal disease. Over the protests of her husband, she flees with her child, intending to take the girl to a faith healer. On the way, she ends up driving through a portal in reality, which takes her to the eerie and deserted town of Silent Hill. Sharon disappears in Silent Hill, and Rose follows what she thinks is her daughter's silhouette all over town. It's soon clear the town is not like any place she's ever been. It's inhabited by a variety of creatures and a living darkness that descends and literally transforms everything it touches. The human inhabitants - the ones who are left - are trapped and fighting a losing battle against the Darkness. Joined by a cop named Cybil, who has been sent to bring her and Sharon back, Rose searches for her little girl while learning the history of Silent Hill and that Sharon is just a pawn in a larger game That's the premise of Christophe Gans' game to movie adaptation. I went in to this movie knowing the premise. I've never played any of the games in this series but I really want to. Gans' did a terrific directing job. The sets look amazing. Everything is beautifully shot and he uses some camera angles which I am going to assume resemble the games' angles in some parts. All in all, his directing job is very well done; you can tell he loves this series.
The script for this movie has been under a lot of scrutiny. OK, it's not perfect and yes, it does have some corny, cheesy and out of place dialogue but I looked past that. I could have used without Rose yelling "Sharon!" over and over and over and over again. I was expecting Ozzy Osbourne to pop up and share in the yelling.
The acting is what you'd expect in this kind of movie. Who's here is solid, not the best but they get the job done. Mitchell does a great job as Rose while Sean Bean is just there. Jodelle Ferland is good as the child as well. The score is just ho-hum. It's not bad but it's nothing memorable. They use the "Silent Hill Theme" too much (don't know if that's the games' theme they're using or the movie's theme).
The effects in this are top notch. The monsters are inventive and creepy. They're unlike anything I've seen. It also helps they're not all CGI. They're people underneath there and there's very little CGI used.
OK, now to the information on why I rated this a little higher than I normally would have. This movie's run time is 125 minutes (approx.). Things seem missing at some places and not everything makes sense at the end. That's because the original cut was longer than King Kong, it was 3 and a half hours! So yeah, lots of things were cut, I guess that's why I'm being lenient to it and not bashing it. I went in expecting that and wasn't disappointed. This gets a higher grade because I understood things got cut out. The movie entertained me anyways. So I wasn't fully aware of what was going on in some places but I was so wrapped up in the world I was drawn into that I really didn't care. That's kind of like Doom, it's an empty empty movie but it's fun. Silent Hill is a movie with a simple plot and things were cut out but it was fun. Was Doom a "good" movie? No. Was it a "fun" movie? Yes and that's all that matters for a flick like this. I didn't go into this movie expecting gold in the first place and I wasn't let down. I guess the biggest thing that irked me was the ending. I heard about this huge amazing ending that left the movie wide open for a sequel. Sorry, it didn't. Sure, the ending was damn cool but wasn't what I was expecting, which is my fault and not the movie's. I enjoyed the very ending cause we don't get full closure. The ending is enigmatic but it doesn't hurt the film. My other large complaint is that the Sean Bean character really serves no purpose. His scenes only detract us from Rose's situation, a world that we've become a part of and entwined in.
So no, this isn't a perfect movie, not many are. And yes, things were cut out and that will cause people to be lost. Is this the definitive video game movie? Far from it. But I went in knowing this wasn't Gans' true vision, just his best effort to put out what he was allowed and for that I congratulate him. He created a pretty alright video game movie. I'm hoping his cut is a great one. The dialogue will make you laugh and the acting isn't the greatest but it's supposed to be a fun ride and I for one am glad I took that ride.