Best Video game Adaptation ever!

Rating: 8/10 (21 April 2006)

Gamers, we've been burn so many times by these half hearted attempts at a Video game movies. Resident evil is one of my favorite games of all time. So course I was stoked for the film. I was even more excited when I heard that George Romero was attached to the movie. This guy invented the Zombie movie genera. How many people besides Bram Stoker have invented a monster that has inured for so many years, and is part of pop culture? Not many. But to my shock Capcom fired Romero and hired Paul Anderson. And I was like OK he made Mortal Kombat which wasn't bad when I was a kid.
But doesn't hold up at all now that I'm 25. I walked in to RE really excited and came out angery. They've taken the slow paced atmospheric video game and turn it in to an action movie. A cliché, poorly acted , poorly directed, and poorly written film. And its sequel was so jaw drop it was so bad. Its barely a movie. Capcom fired Romero because they didn't like the script. Well if they choose this script over his, than his script must have been uncompromisable. He must have written it form the zombies point of view, complete with zombie dialog. The problem with RE and every other video game film is that the makers had no respect for the source material. They feel that gamers don't like story, that all they want is action. Which isn't true for all Video games anymore. In fact now games are being panned for having bad stories. Where as before all you needed in the way of game story was an excuse to save someone or kill stuff.
That beginning said I was so skeletal when they said that they where turning silent hill in to a movie. This game is all about atmosphere, its not action game in the slightest. But Sony started doing things right. First Kanomi the games publisher was involved form the begging. And they got a director and writer who have actually made good films. Although I was not a huge fan of Brother Hood of the wolf, Its ten times better than anything Uwe Boll or Paul Anderson have made. And I've read in several interviews that Both Christophe Gain and Roger Avery both love Silent Hill.
I personally don't believe that either Uwe boll or Paul Anderson have ever picked up a controller in their lives. They even have the guy who did the sound track for the games doing some of the music. Which really got my attention. I love the music in the games, Both SH3 and 4 came with the soundtrack. I listen to both regularly. So it sounds like everything finally going right with one of these movies for once.
So having seen It I can't say with out a doubt this movie Rocks! For its start to its ambiguous ending. It felt like the game, but it also felt like a movie. A balance that must be met. Doom felt like a game with really people. I mean it even had a first person shooter scene. And RE felt like a bad action film form the 80s. It was nothing like the game at all. If they called RE, Mil Jovovich Zombie killer you won't know the difference. This movie however was the whole package. It had the atmosphere of the game pacing and suspense of a good horror film.
The biggest problem faced by any filmmaker adapting a game, is the fact that your adapting something that 70% of it is meant to be interactive. Stories is important in a game but so is game play (unless your MGS but thats another topic). In silent hill you spend a good amount of time finding keys solving puzzles and killing monsters. Cool in a game but not in a film. And even the story of silent hill isn't one that a main stream American audience would go for. Some things would have to be changed to make a good film. Now in previous adaptation the filmmakers have either completely dumb it down (Paul Anderson) or just ignore everything and make up their own ridiculous story (Uwe Boll).
This film fines that balances. It doesn't betray the game, and its not some geeky fan film. One thing that really surprised me what how gory it was. I mean I knew it would be the games can be pretty horrific but good god. Pyramid head kills someone in a way that really made me cringe. I'm going to see this one again definitely. I happy to say that the curse has been lifted.