This Movie Makes Absolutely No Sense

Rating: 4/10 (20 December 2006)

A woman brings her daughter to the ghost town of Silent Hill, and then loses her. The rest of the film involves the woman following clues to find her daughter while she is followed by a police officer and her husband. What she encounters is both shocking and unexpected.
Director Christophe Gans loves the game "Silent Hill" -- and so do a lot of people. But he really loves it, making sure he was the one to get the director's chair by really lobbying the people funding this project. His love shows in the movie ,where he kept many elements of the game, including exact replicas of maps and some of the original music.
Roger Avary, a noted writer and Quentin Tarantino associate, wrote this film... his love of the game is not known to me. But what is known is that he was not capable of writing a coherent story. His first draft was rejected for having no male characters, so he added them in (which makes a world of difference to the story). But no one ever bothered to tell Roger that a plot has to make sense if you want people to watch and enjoy a movie.
This movie is nonsense. Monster after monster is thrown at the lead character, with one having no known connection to the next. One beast has a sword five times larger than his body, making him just absurd. Things appear and disappear at random. Cops chase you and stalk your kids for no reason. You will find every clue left for you -- in order, in short time, in the most random places (a school desk, a corpse's mouth). Trying to tie this all together later on is great, but not when you've already lost half your audience by the time you get there.
There is one good video game adaptation -- "Resident Evil" (if there's another one, let me know). Part of what made it great is that the writer did not sit and say to himself, "how much of the game can I push into this script?" Movies and games are a different world. The original Super Mario Bros movie is a great example of what happens when you try to put game aspects into a movie in the "real world".
So, how can we make "Silent Hill" better? First, editing. The movie is over two hours long, and there is no reason for this. Second, and most importantly, reduce the number of monsters. Yes, I like a good monster and even though the special effects and CGI were annoying I liked the spitter... but throwing in ten monsters where two or three will be fine is uncalled for, confusing and bogs down the viewer. If the viewer is me, my ability to believe what I'm watching will die faster than a goldfish in toilet.
I will say the acting was good... except for the little girl. I saw her paraded around the talk shows when the movie came out and she seemed very intelligent and a nice kid. But I'm sorry, she was so fake in the film. Every line seemed so forced. Ugh! Although almost everyone I know likes this film, I have to say they're seeing something I'm not. I want this part of my life back. And while most films can get a second chance from me if they ask nicely, no matter how awful they are (like "Lady in the Water"), this one never will. I really hope it goes out of print and stays that way.