The Movie Blog

23 Comments

• 1. miles replies at 20th April 2006, 12:05 pm :

  i really want to see this, especially as the guy from brotherhood of the wolf (which i loved) is directing it.

• 2. Drewbacca replies at 20th April 2006, 12:44 pm :

  I didn’t know it wasn’t being shown to critics….that’s BAD!

  But here’s waht it DOES have going for it:

  1) Same director who did “Brotherhood of the Wolf.” Pretty good movie, and the directing style was amazing. Unlike anything I’ve seen before or since. I loved it. I will Silent Hill, no matter what, simply for this reason.

  2) Screenplay is by Roger Avery. Who also did Pulp Fiction, Rules of Attraction, Reservoir Dogs, True Romance, Killing Zoe…

  Also, the trailer appears very faithful to the game. I’m not saying it looks good, I’m saying it is very faithful to the game…foggy streets, acting, creatures, etc…

  I’ll see it Saturday afternoon and let you know. a full review will be up on my site by Sat evening.

  -Drewbacca
  MoviePatron.com

• 3. aedmark replies at 20th April 2006, 1:51 pm :

  I dunno. I’ve seen some reviews from some websites. Maybe just from people who screened it at the theater as employees.. Who knows. I’ve heard only one negative review so far, and I believe it was just a troll.

  I still have high hopes. The MTV clip is cut very strangely. Obviously the movie doesn’t play out just like that.

• 4. themarina replies at 20th April 2006, 2:00 pm :

  I’m not sure if the not being shown to critics bit is really a sign of a bad movie. And though I’m not holding my breath on this comment, I’m still going to see this over the weekend.

• 5. Panda replies at 20th April 2006, 4:19 pm :

  John, you made a mistake! It is being showed to critics later today (Thursday night), and there is already a review from the Horror Channel out there (4.5/5). And originally it was supposed to be previewed on tuesday or wednesday but their were technicall problems. Also, read Joblo’s article of the interview with Roger Avary. Sony actually loved the film and wanted to get it in theatres as fast as possible.

  I just needed to get that off my chest!

• 6. adam replies at 20th April 2006, 5:54 pm :

  Here’s my theory on it not being shown to critics and I hope I’m right. Sony realizes that the people that are going to go watch this film are not the type of film goers that wait breathlessly to find out what Gene Shalit or Leonard Maltin think of it. It’s going to be fans of the game. Critics are not traditionally kind to horror/sci-fi movies anyways. Even the ones that the fans love. In my opinion, whether or not the critics like it, and there is a good chance they won’t because I’m going to go out on a limb and say most of them have never played the game, the fans will show up. Those that don’t on the opening weekend are going to listen to their friends when they tell them whether or not it’s any good. So why bother showing it to the critics who will probably pan it anyways and turn away the rest of the potential “casual” viewers that might go see it based on the trailer on TV? The “they didn’t show it to critics so it must suck” line only applies to the hard core movie fans. Most people don’t know about that general rule of thumb so Sony may just be taking a gamble and letting the trailer (which I as a fan of the games LOVED btw) sell the film. Then again, it might just suck huge donkey nuts.

• 7. Panda replies at 20th April 2006, 6:38 pm :

  just need to stress this again;

  [b]IT IS BEING SHOWN TO CRITICS TODAY (THURSDAY)!!![/b]

• 8. darren seeley replies at 20th April 2006, 6:50 pm :

  John, I’m going to have to stringly side with Drewbacca here, I am going on the basis of director Christope Gans and co-writer Roger Avery. In addition, although the producers were also behind the Res Evil films, (Sam Haidia) - the trailers didn’t have Maryln Manson tunes over the preview. I think the pic actually looks good.

  Let me stress here: I not a fan of the game. Hardly played it. The true success of the film is to lure audiences who are not -NOT- fans of the game or who have hardly played it while at the same time appealing to those who have. Gans isn’t Uwe Boll, and he’s ten tiimes better than Paul WS Andersen.

  Second, from the looks of things, Panda is on to something. Screen Gems/Sony does not think Silent Hill is going to be a dog. They are strongly backing this up.

• 9. darren seeley replies at 20th April 2006, 6:54 pm :

  Oh, and one footnote for John: stop contradicting yourself and/or misphrasing .
  ” I don’t have a lot of hope…all games to film suck…”
  ” I hope this is good and breaks the streak…”

  Which is it? Hope, or none at all? Or is this just a way of covering your butt, with no real opinion at all?

• 10. John Campea replies at 20th April 2006, 9:41 pm :

  Hey Darren,

  You should know there is a difference between HAVING hope (holding out belief) and hoping (a wish or desire). To say that I Hope it will be good, and yet not have much hope that it will… is NOT a contradiction.

• 11. John Campea replies at 20th April 2006, 9:51 pm :

  Hey Panda,

  Showing the film to Critics on the night before the movie opens does not count. They can’t get the word out to their audiences before opening night.

• 12. Leviathan replies at 20th April 2006, 10:46 pm :

  Ah, this is coming from a guy whose favourite actress is Angelina Jolie. Bah. Why don’t you watch the film first before criticising it?

• 13. John Campea replies at 20th April 2006, 10:53 pm :

  Hey Leviathan,

  When the HELL did I ever say Jolie was my favorite actress?!?!?!

  Also, I just said I don’t have much hope for the film… is that criticism?!?! I don’t think so.

• 14. DarKing replies at 21st April 2006, 12:19 am :

  I also hope this movie will be good too! I liked the trailer, giving me the sense that it’ll finally come to it’s video game origin. I thought Doom was okay, but if the film added Hell, it would’ve been much better (IMO).

  I’m a bit worried, but for some reason, some people are expecting See No Evil to make a big profit, though I feel they’ll be butchered by X3 (I’m going to see to that personally, just kidding). It is a DAMN shame that no one is treating games the same respect that comic book movies.

  We’ll see tomorrow, because the film’s fate will be in OUR hands!

• 15. mogulus replies at 21st April 2006, 5:26 am :

  honestly, part of what made the game so creepy was the fog and the fact that you couldnt see ten feet in front of your face. you were constantly wondering if this stupid move would be your last….

  when you could see more than 10 feet, you were usually in a scene with lots of chain link fences and organs growing out of the walls. Great stuff…

  now, here’s my thoughts:

  1: the same “what’s that shit” atmosphere may not translate well into a feature film…. It may actually get quite annoying.

  2: however, i will admit that the creepy bleeding walls and monster stuff looked SPOT ON like the game. THIS gives me hope.

  like I said over at filmstalker….I wanted to beat the shit out of the kid who was repeatedly screaming “silent hill!!! silent hill!!!” that’s not creepy. that’s pathetically amature.

• 16. Al replies at 21st April 2006, 2:57 pm :

  All this talk in like every post about how much video game movies suck has me thinking. Do they really suck because they were video games first or is it simply that there isn’t one that actually follows the actual game?

  Now I’m not a die hard video game fanatic, but I have played most of the movie worthy games over the years and with Uwe Boll movies aside (since they aren’t worth any sort of discussion), I would have to say that it is the rewriting of the story and not the actual fact that it was a video game first that has been killing the games.

  There are of course games that have too little story built into them to actually be brought up in this, like Tomb Raider and Doom, but think about all the others, including Silent Hill.

  Resident Evil is a great story and could translate well into a movie, no matter what game you pick. Even Zero was enough to make into a movie. Instead Paul W.S. Anderson decided to create a whole new story and try to throw in random bits and pieces from all of the games. In fact he even went so far as to leave out possibly the most crucial character in the story, Chris Redfield. I would still love to see someone make a movie actually based directly on the game.

  I see Silent Hill going in the same direction. Like Resident Evil, they put together the same basic setting as the game, but they are taking it in a new direction. Back to that whole chick first on screen move that has virtually never worked. If a woman is the main character in a story, then use her, but in both Silent Hill and Resident Evil they completly left out other main characters. Especially in the first Resident Evil movie.

  Some may say that there were other parts of Silent Hill in the game that you could not reach and those could have their own stories. I say who cares… We want Silent Hill the video game story, not the rewritten version of it.

  I believe that, considering the history of game movies, that the hope lies in either a Tom Clancy movie, halo, or metal gear solid. Perhaps it isn’t even fair to consider Clancy in this since both Rainbow Six and Splinter Cell are best selling books too. Still though, that leaves Halo or Metal Gear Solid to become possibly the first good video game movie. I have only read bits and pieces of actually making the movie Metal Gear Solid through interviews, but with such a developed story I don’t think anyone would ever be foolish enough to actually attempt to change it (I believe that many feel the series to be the best video game story ever).

  Halo on the other hand dropped many knotches when I read the books. The first was a prequel, the second was the first game (which is what the movie is based on), and the third tells the story in between the two games). I kept reading good things about them and now I am sorry I read them because they were so good that the movie can’t possibly live up to them. Since they are making the movie based on the first game, I think they will leave out all the quality side stories from the book and the first book, which is an epic space battle/bootcamp type book is completly skipped.

  Well coming to an end of a pointless rant I must say that perhaps we won’t see a good one, not counting the possibility of a good Tom Clancy movie which would be based off from a best selling book as well, for at least a few years to come. Too bad.

• 17. darren seeley replies at 21st April 2006, 4:11 pm :

  I just got back from Silent Hill. It wasn’t horrible. It was a bit long and winded though: if I were the film editor I probaly could have shaved off fifteen minutes easily…There are a few things that bugged me:

  * I suspect some critics will be turned off by the old, cheap hat of Children In Jeopordy.

  * Radha Mitchell and Laurie Holden. Good actresses, but which one do I have to bone first? Especially Holden- whose cop uniform looks just a bit to tight and she early in film she doesn’t walk like a cop, but a runway model, swingin’ them hips.

  * When mommy calls out to someone who thinks is her daughter, daughter should say, “Right here mommy”. Furthermore, the sound mix was a little off in my theatre. The results were everytime ‘mommy’ called out her childs name,Sharon, she would cry out ‘Shar!”..given the mix, it sounds a litle too close to “Shit”.

  *Do ghosts bleed that much?

  *If a person is important for the ghosts to get even with the religious cult, why attempt to harm such people? Furthermore, the relgious doomsday cult originated… how? Just one day, they all just went back, out of the blue, to the Salem Witch trials reborn?

  *Rules of physics. How can ghosts in the ’spirit realm’ pick up objects and make them work?

  Now, the good stuff:

  Great creepy feel, makeup FX are top notch. Film held most of my intrest, and while the twist lost some punch to it (telegraphed early on) and I loved all the upside down falling ash gags. I liked a horror film that makes rules and sticks to them. I haven’t played the game, but for the most part, film delivers on what it set out to do.

  I’ll ask again: who do I screw first-Laurie or Radha?

  -Sealer

• 18. Omar replies at 21st April 2006, 10:04 pm :

  your right metal gear is one of the best video game storys around there will be no need to change a well written story like that

• 19. Alfredo replies at 24th April 2006, 4:54 pm :

  I saw the movie last Friday… It sucked.

• 20. RyanS replies at 2nd May 2006, 2:07 am :

  I haven’t seen the movie yet, but so far what I have seen of it looks visually very close to the game (the shambling daemons, and other assorted nasty things)The reason video game movies suck so bad, is because they are being made by people who aren’t gamers. Hence, they’re not concerned with getting things accurate, or having the story stay pure through translation. They do what so many people do, they choose a demographic they think will make them money “Kids love video games, look at the sales figures!!!” and play it all freaking wrong. The original Resident Evil movie #1 was supposed to have been written by George Romero (who else? ) and they scrapped his script because it was, and I quote, “Too graphic, too horrifying.” HELLO!!!! The problem is, studio execs are morons who think we’re a bunch of rats hitting the feeder bar for pellets.

  What they did with Doom was unforgivable, and the sequel to Resident Evil was the worst pile of crap I’ve ever had the misfortune to watch. (May I point out Nemesis’s bogus ((and obviously fake)) rubber costume) and transformation into nothing less than Robocop… and to top it all off, he turns into a good guy in the end!!! AARRGGGHHH

  (deep breath) I feel the pain of all fans of these games, but sadly there is nothing that can be done. The only answer is to stop seeing them in the theatre and show the execs that we refuse to support crap, but then that’s hard to do when they give us so little to go on. They need to start screening to people who actually like video games instead of people who wouldn’t know a video game if it bit them in the face.

  (sigh) I like Silent Hill though, so I’ve resigned myself that it’s probably going to suck hardcore, and I’m just going to enjoy it as a movie in and of itself, and try to forget it’s based on a game.

• 21. Iyasu replies at 7th May 2006, 9:03 pm :

  I’ve seen the film twice now and think it is absolutley amazing. It’s true to the game and everything was filmed perfectly. I think that anyone who see’s the film and thinks its rubbish are people who don’t actually like the game that much. I agree that sometimes it seems that walking around not doing much and going into random buildings and finding clues did last a bit long… but, erm, correct me if i’m wrong but isn’t that what you do in the game?
  This film was made perfectly and i’m happy to say that this is the best game to movie transfer i’ve ever seen!

• 22. Allison Trump replies at 2nd June 2006, 5:18 pm :

  This is cool, you have to try it. I guessed 88788, and this game guessed it! See it here - http://www.funbrain.com/guess/

• 23. Garrison Christie replies at 25th November 2006, 6:40 am :

  Microsoft and Peter Jackson postpone the making of a film based on the Halo video game after backers pull out…

Leave a comment