Could this finally be the video game-to-theatre port to break the mold set by Uwe Boll and Paul W.S. Anderson? Considering Silent Hill was not directed by either Uwe Boll or Paul W.S. Anderson, this movie has some serious potential.
As soon as those familiar chords started up over the company logo sequence, I knew we were in business. Here's the breakdown:
Presentation: I'm including the $10 ticket price in this, though you might find it cheaper elsewhere. What that bought me, besides a big empty theater with no other players, was a series of promos I could not skip through no matter how hard I mashed the buttons, and then another 20 minutes of un-skipable introductory exposition Hideo Kojima would have been proud of. Also at that price, I could not afford any peripheries, like, say, popcorn.
Graphics: As I said at Wallet Rape Cinemas in Perrysburg, "It's like watching it on the PS9!" Everything was crisp, dark and creepy, and load times were not a problem — which is good, because this movie is eighty-percent cut scenes.
The only disappointment was the overuse of the grain filter that made the scenes, especially exteriors, a bit washed out. It is almost as if even this next-next-gen hardware could not push the filter. In flashback sequences, the grain got so heavy that you could even see tears in the film stock, as if barbed wire was used.
Game play: Character control was very limited, and the fixed camera angles were in awkward spots sometimes. Weapon selection was also limited; don't expect to find any extra handgun ammo lying in the trunk of a car or a steel pipe in a convenient place.
The distance between sparsely placed save points was also frustrating, especially considering the amount of bugs, zombie-brats and bosses you have to fight your way through. Interactive cut scenes with quick timer elements would have brought the player into the moment better.
Sound: Sound effects are good — when Pyramid Head drags his giant sword across the floor and slices open doors, it made my teeth hurt. But I was very bothered with the voice acting. I understand the actors must not have much to work with, only providing brief sound clips to further the between-slaughter plot, and I imagine a lot of character-developing dialog had to be cut in the port from Japanese. Still, the voices were flat, delivery was a bit off, and dialog fizzled.
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Article comments
1 - JELIEL³
MOvie reviewed like a game... nice move and article.
2 - Ken Edwards
Thanks. Though I cannot take full credit. Jordan, a writer at Breaking Windows came up with the concept and contributed part of it. So thanks Jordan, it turned out better than I expected.
3 - Jordan Fouts
So yeah here's hoping they make a movie out of this wonderful video game. Or a video game out of this movie...?
4 - Ken Edwards
Yea we discussed that last night at X3, I will have to add that Jordan.