A step in the right direction, but...

Rating: 6/10 (10 July 2014)

Being a fan of the Silent Hill games myself and knowing that a lot of fans had nothing but praise for the movie, I had good hopes this one would be finally it - the proof that great movies can be made based on video games. Resident Evil and Silent Hill I though would be good movie material; all one had to do is to produce the uneasy and intense atmosphere they had, but after the Resident Evil-adaptation failed so hard to even grasp what the (early) RE games were about and instead went it's own trashy action route with some minor RE stuff thrown in just so they can call it "Resident Evil", I had some reservations for Silent Hill.
Well, my concerns in that regard proved to be unnecessary. Very much unlike the Resident Evil movie, the makers took the material serious and they really stayed true to it. The town looks spot on, the music is mostly from the game, there's the thick fog, the rusty and bloody other dimension, the sirens, the nurses, some famous scenes are replicated from the game with the exact same angle-shots... you get the point. It takes some liberties, especially with the characters, but always in just the right amounts and it felt more or less justified. However, where the movie succeeded with being faithful to the game, it never managed to do something truly great with it. For once the movie explains too much and as a result demystifies a lot of things that would've been better left to the viewers imagination. It explains for example that the whole town shifts to another dimension where the "real" world can't reach it. It even goes so far to show how the people outside Silent Hill acknowledge and react to it. In the game that was never explained and it was never clear wherever the main character just had his own nightmare, is going insane, entered a cursed town or another dimension altogether. It also explains the sirens, which is just a minor detail, but again killed something that was far more interesting when left unexplained and used for symbolism. Another example would be Pyramid head. The movie is by far not as ambiguous as the games were and its truly a shame that they went that way.
Another problem I found with this adaptation was the pacing, and this is where I've noticed that a movie would have it hard to do it justice. Silent Hill games are, just the like the name implies, most of the time quiet and have a slow pace. The game every now and then serves you a tiny bit of story, and then lets you wander around the town uncovering bit for bit of the sad and horrible truth. These moments in-between storytelling allow the player to let them sink-in, giving them more weight which is even further amplified by disturbing symbolism and clever level design. The adaptation omits this by having a rather faster, event-to-event pace. This makes things feel a little rushed and cramped, although to be fair, was still pulled off decently, however some of the mood is lost in favor to some adrenaline-fueled thrills.
Speaking of the mood; the movie manages to capture the sinister and sadistic aspects of the game. Its quite astonishing how it depicts evil minds, making me feel almost angered about it. There are some truly wicked scenes which definitely are memorable, but on the other hand it never reaches the more subtle, psychological aspects the games are famous for. It's also really explicit.
Is has a few corny moments and dialog, but they didn't bother me much. Acting is decent for the most time. There are a few scenes where its bad but I guess that has more to do with the writing part, because I couldn't honestly imagine someone doing a better job in these certain scenes. Not a big deal, really. I also would've liked it to rely less on CGI and more on the practical effects, but again that's just another nit-pick.
So is it the best video-adaptation yet? Perhaps, but that's not saying a lot. Is it truly a great movie? No, sadly not. It's "just" OK. As far as staying true to the material and not sucking, it most surely has the best ratios. It is notable that effort went into this one and that they actually bothered to play and understand the game, but despite that some things were unluckily compensated and/or could've just been done better. It did not match the uneasy feeling I had while playing the games and never felt as personal to the main character. Still, what's there is far better than any of the Resident Evil life-action movies or Uwe Boll works and I really wanted to rate it higher than I did. If anything it is the best example that shows that there is potential in video-game adaptations when approached serious and without cash-grab intentions only, it just needed more polish. It gets a 6.5 out of 10 from me.