A step in the right direction.

Rating: 6/10 (24 February 2018)

I think it is fair to say that the general consensus is that Video Game movies suck complete and utter ass, so I've skipped out on plenty. That is until I found a Youtube video crediting this film in particular for being not only faithful to the source material which is a great horror game, but also being just a decent film all around. Well I can certainly say that this film is far superior to most of it's caliber.
Allow me to say that this film certainly has plenty of hit or miss qualities as well as straight up double-edged sword qualities. Allow me to explain what I mean by that. First, the story. The narrative is probably the biggest hit or miss I've seen in any film ever. Sometimes the film has great moments because of it's surprisingly great directing, cinematography, and shot composition. However the story just balances out to just "ok" the positives at play here are the twisted themes and mystery elements. But the negatives here are the extremely pretentious and sometimes awful writing, certain lines really miss their mark when they try to be either melodramatic or casual. There were plenty of instances when I sat there and said to myself, "people don't talk like that." which is very dangerous especially in a film that is based on such a character driven game. So the plot was just, meh.
Visuals- Without a shadow of doubt are the most inconsistent thing in this film, even though it seemed to be the aspect praised the most around the internet. But I can still see where they're coming from. An element that I thought I wasn't going to even give a shit about but turned out to be awesome was the set design and creature design; OH MY GOD, it's too damn fantastic. The town of silent hill almost feels as if the town has it's own character, kind of in the sense that the real antagonist of the film is the town itself. From the ash that coats the streets and air like snow, to the dark noire atmosphere at night and the bleak environments by day. The set design also fares very well, a great sense of scale and realism, almost as if I was watching a completely practical production. Also let me just say how faithful to the source material the monsters look, the nurses and especially everyone's favorite huge boss spooky boi Pyramid Head are both recreated with delicate care and detail. Also watching Pyramid Head mess stuff up is just so satisfying. Now let me rip the other aspect of the visuals a new one, by talking, or in this case complaining about the CG. The CG looks somewhat decent in the final few scenes of the film, don't get me wrong, but I can never be convinced by the shift between day and night silent hill has. When the environment starts to rust I just don't buy it, maybe more detail and money needed to be put to these scenes because these transitions are crucial to how the viewer depicts the town; which as stated earlier has it's own character.
Overall 6/10 is very appropriate, not great, but never throw this film in with the garbage of it's peers.