Gamers beware

Rating: 2/10 (21 April 2006)

Let me start by saying that this movie wasn't 100% horrible. In fact, if you have played the games or watch them be played by someone else, you will most probably be extremely excited by the first 15 minutes of this movie.
"Oh!" you'll say, "I know this!" you'll realize. Each minute passes and you find yourself tingling in anticipation of the next scene. She finds an alley, the siren sounds and-- "Movie," you breath excitedly "keep going! I'm almost there!"
...and then suddenly you feel slightly off. It's subtle at first, but then this uneasy feeling grows.
It starts with one scene that doesn't quite happen in the first game. Still, that's not a big deal right? Creative license, you say to yourself. The movie can't be exactly like the game. And you'd be right. No one should expect it to be perfectly in sync with those incredibly creepy playstation hits. However, when you delve deeper into this movie you'll find yourself traveling through a ridiculously thick, stinky, sloppy plot that's being unsuccessfully masked over with lemony fresh visuals.
*SLIGHT game spoilers*
If you've played the games, you'll know that each one was connected in some way or another. However, this didn't ruin playing the games out of order. Sure, you'll miss a few references, but basically the stories are different with just one thing in common: Silent Hill. That's what could have made this movie a very good idea. They could have chosen to stick with the idea that someone who is tortured in the mind or someone who is affiliated with someone who is tortured in the mind, traveled to Silent Hill in order to deal with their 'demons'. If you haven't played the games, then you just read, technically, the plot to each game. Anyway, as I was saying; they could have chosen to stick to this plot and make the characters interesting, but instead they decide to throw in a woman screaming after her daughter the whole movie long, a bunch of recognizable monsters, a few religious fanatics, a disgusting and completely unnecessary barbed wire scene, useless 'humor' and even lines that probably weren't supposed to be humorous(but made the audience laugh anyway), and a weird/confusing ending that really gives you next to nothing on closure.
In short, this movie was not at all a good tribute to the games that they were inspired by. The games might not make sense to you at first, even after you play the endings, but usually they'll begin to after you think on them awhile. Unfortunately, the movie makes less and less sense as you think on it awhile.