Reviews

I've just come home from watching this movie, I had been waiting for it for quite a while so I was pretty excited. I read plenty of negative reviews and now I figured I'd share my own opinion about the movie.

First of all, I want to say that I don't think this movie can be appreciated much if you haven't played the games or seen anyone else playing them. A lot of the reasons why I have enjoyed it are in fact related to me having played the titles years ago. That said, I think this movie had some really great potential, which was ultimately not developed into something as good as it could have been.

Things I liked:

As a former Silent Hill player, I have played each title that has been released so far except for Downpour. It is my favorite game series of all times. The one thing that made my experience of watching the movie really good was that I could just feel as if I was playing the game, during some very involving moments. I remembered how I felt getting through parts of SH3, the mall and the amusement park etc, and seeing how well they made that into a movie was simply amazing. While watching I just couldn't help but feel as if I was looking at the screen with my controller and expecting this or that to happen. Frightening and really exciting.

Another thing I really loved, was how well the creatures were made. They conveyed the Silent Hill experience entirely and were amazingly terrifying. Just like in the games! I heard people complain that they seemed ridiculous: they do not. But in this case too, if you haven't played the game you'll understand very little of what monsters are like and what they are supposed to act like (ex: the nurses).

I liked how they seemed to try and give the message that Silent Hill is a place of nightmares and that everyone has their own nightmares there, that the story in the movie is just one of those. Everyone sees a different thing.

Things I didn't like:

The acting was barely average. I had heard the acting would be really good and whatnot: it isn't. Maybe the actors weren't given a lot of chances to prove how good they were, but definitely they weren't Oscar candidates.

The costumes of the humans (as opposed to creatures) were poorly made. I didn't like the make up or the clothes, aside from Heather's which were pretty much the same as in the game (or close to that).

They could have made a better use of the theme song and the soundtrack in general, but it wasn't terrible.

The storyline was just not well thought out. It was rushed into at some point, and it was not very well explained. The idea behind it, like the basic plot, could have been made into something really cool. Unfortunately they just rushed things, put some random action here and there, and got it all over with. What I hated the most was the romance that was randomly inserted. I hate when they force romance into movies, that is just completely out of place. Hadn't it been there, they could have used those wasted minutes onto developing some other aspects of the story into something better. I didn't like the ending either, far-fetched.

Overall: The movie is not atrociously bad, it is average. Poor development of the storyline was the major letdown. The setting, the effects and the creatures were amazing, and the movie sure is scary in the right kind of way. I wish they had focused more on mystery and psychological aspects of the story, instead of some other useless stuff. I would advise fans of the game to watch this, but not if they expect to see on screen the same exact story from the game. I read some people being annoyed that "it wasn't like the game", well they never said that it was going to be the same so if you are that limited don't go watch it at all. It was a fun movie, but I would probably advise people to wait for it to come out for rent and not pay the ticket to the movies.

I read the other reviews which were very negative due to the fact this mini series apparently doesn't really follow the book's storyline properly, but honestly I haven't read the book yet (despite being a Stephen King's fan) and from my perspective this part was not bad at all.

I am sure that, as with every other movie that is inspired by a book (and in saying this I even include The Shining, which was considered a great movie yet still is incredibly inferior to the book), this is also a case in which things have been left out or poorly adapted. However, not being able to make that comparison, I can judge the mini series simply for what I see, and I am pleased. The acting is very good (especially for a mini series! If you have had the chance to watch Rose Red you know why this is not something I'd necessarily expect) and the storyline is intriguing. I didn't find this confusing, more like mysterious in an interesting way. It would be a let down if they ended up not explaining anything at the end either, though, that is for sure. However, if they are just not including all the book's details to be able to adapt it to the movie kind of media, I am not complaining, just as long as we get the whole story in the end.

I can say so far the first part was interesting and that I am waiting to watch what happens next. Hopefully it won't let us down!

I can't believe with all the money they are making they keep on choosing bad productions for these movies. Eclipse is worse than New Moon in acting, soundtrack, special effects AND plot! (I didn't think it was gonna be possible, but I actually changed my opinion on New Moon and now I find it MUCH too good compared to this). The movie isn't awful, but it's totally emotionless and saves nothing of the Twilight atmosphere and the characters' personality. The only good scenes are DIRECTLY QUOTED from the book, so it's not even the director doing a good job. The book is my favorite of the saga, thus the movie was a huge disappointment. The plot is fractioned, there are these beautiful scenes from the book, but they aren't connected between each other. All that happens in-between is insignificant or just emptied of its emotional tension or value. The characters' personality is totally bent to fit in the plot less movie, Edward even appears as a villain in some scenes while in the book it's the absolute opposite. He's noble and always thinking of what's best for her, not a tyrant that tries to have it all and make it bad for Jacob. Once again this movie is UNWATCHABLE for one who hasn't read the book. I find the actors great, but the director wasn't even able to direct their performance to be as good as it can get. The only scenes that deserve to be watched are those with actual EMOTIONS in them, like in the tent, in the bedroom and in the meadow. The reason I give 5 to this movie is because it's not really BAD. Nothing is really awful in it. It's just NOT good. Plain and dull at times! What I appreciated was the humor that was finally let in, which didn't happen in the previous movies. In the books of the saga there are multiple jokes but only this time they seem to play a decent role, finally! The acting was inferior than the previous but still I find the cast brilliant, so I can't say it's a bad product overall. Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner are simply perfect. But for them, we have to thank the first director, certainly not this one!

I would recommend this only to people who love the books and aren't expecting too much, to all other people, save money and get yourself the books if you really want to give them a shot.

Honestly, I don't really understand what people are discussing here. The movie is definitely not a very good one, definitely has a lot to improve to be considered good even, but people here are just insulting it for all the wrong reasons. I would say that they are using every excuse to call it trash. I think the major down sides of this movie were definitely the huge plot holes all along it. For somebody who hasn't read the book its nearly impossible to enjoy it. I can't believe the writer would allow such cutting, but apparently she didn't mind it. The direction isn't extraordinary but I wouldn't consider it horrible, the special effects are nicer than in the previous movie and I enjoyed the wolf parts. The fact that people keep on complaining about guys having no shirt is ridiculous, there are several explanations in the book about that and so they just followed the source, for once. I do not consider the guys attractive as they are shirtless, so I doubt I'm being biased. The criticism about the acting is out of place, if you ask me. The acting is nearly the best thing in this movie and I disagree with those who say the actors have always the same expression and such. I found that the actors are quite good at expressing the tension that characterizes most parts of the book. I do agree that the humor parts have been nearly completely left out, which was a tragic mistake if you ask me. To all those who are arguing whether or not Bella represents a good model for girls, your complaint goes to the saga, not to the movie. If you didn't like the books and their messages, you might as well have not gone watch it. I think everybody is trying to read more than there is to it. I very much agree with somebody who said if you don't like this kind of stories, don't go to the cinema to watch them and then whine about them. I consider the movie a rather mediocre one, it could have been SO much better, with little effort. If they had just grabbed the damn book and put the content in the movie, for starters. I realize time is a limit, but I prefer a movie that is very long or two separate movies to represent the story, than a bad movie with everything cut around and not-understandable. All in all, I would give this movie a 5/10, for the acting that I appreciated, the soundtrack that was quite appropriate in my opinion, and the special effects.

However, I would NOT recommend the movie to people who haven't read the book and/or do not enjoy romance and fantasy.