Faithful to the Core

Rating: 8/10 (21 April 2006)

This got to be the most realistic adaptation of a video game to movie today, and yet it works as a stand-alone movie. The problem with movies that are based on game and book is that if you have played the game or read the book already you will feel as if you were watching a re-run. For those that have not played the game, it will be a lot of information one needs to sort through to understand it. For most part, this movie copies the looks and feels of the game spot-on. The first half of the movie WILL send goose-bumps up and down your back as the town of Silent Hill and the atmospheres that surrounds it seems to rip it right off the game itself. I will tip my hat to the production designer for this film as he or she did an outstanding job. Nothing beats the creepiness of a lone woman walking down an empty street in an abandon town with a bad dose of ju-ju.
The monsters in this film are few when comparing to other movies that are based on video game, and their appearances are brief. Also, due to the nature of Silent Hill's game play, the protagonist doesn't engages the monsters but rather, avoiding them. The computer special effects are what drives this movie, and they will shock-and-awe you.
The pace of this film is also slower than most of movies of video game, but this is needed to provide the necessary creepy atmosphere that's the mainstay of the game, but 2/3 into the movie the pace of the storyline becomes bogged down with dialogs trying to explain everything. Which makes this film that is not heavy on the actions seems even slower to those who was bred on MTV.
All in all, I like this movie for its truthfulness to the game it is portraying and the craftsmanship of the production value, and at two hours long it doesn't seems to be long enough.