Silent Hill: Best Game to film adaption yet.

When I heard about this film in the works, I wasn't sure after Resident Evil, but looks like I might have to go see it now. At last it seems games have a worthy film champion named Silent Hill.

Very glad that Brotherhood of the Wolf director dude worked on it, since his previous effort was very good too. After such good reviews looks like the chances of us seeing a sequel to SH or another different Konami film have gone up.

Forget that Doom dvd, go see Silent Hill.

Spong, any chance of a short review of SH film?

There is every chance of it! But we won't see it until next Tuesday evening, so the review won't make it onto SPOnG until Wednesday...

That's no problem Doc. Just so long as we get a chance to praise it. Chances of MGS film look much better now.

I heard of a possible Castlevania film but MGS or Snatcher would work better IMO.

Woohoo! more games to movie translations please! Eternall Darkness as a fully fledged series would rock too.

Let's Zelda would make a fantastic game to make a movie from... problem is, who to use as Link and have him not say a word ever and not make it look akward... like finding someone to play Master Chief and walk veeerrrrrryyyyyy slowly all the time (lame, i know, sue me!)

I always thought Flashback could do with a movie, although having just replayed it the story would need a lot of work.

You want "the" video game movie adaption, Fallout. Post Apocalyptic world, one man out to save humanity, big f**king guns, Northern and Southern California wastes, bad ass humor, and a canine named Dogmeat. Just think The Postman, but with less sucking and more action and story.

I feel that certain genres make the adaptation more easily and RPGs tend to suffer in translation as much of the fun in western style rpgs are doing the side missions. Methinks, if the hordes could be mustered, a highish budget fallout tv series would be more successful, a movie would condense everything down into s**t-o-vision.

Saw Silent Hill last night and I must say it is without doubt the best and most faithful game to movie adaptation. It's by no means without flaws, but on the whole is actually a good film, which follows the original story closely (and in more detail, for those of us that didn't fully get everything in the first place) while embellishing the plot with some good ideas - especially the implementation of the true story of Centralia.

The film is also very horrific/gory/ and I'm quite surprised it passed through the BBFC with a sub-18 certificate. There's a scene in it that's easily one of the most shocking I've ever seen - honestly - but don't want to give away any spoilers. Let me know what anyone else thinks...

On the downside, for me at least, the film also tended to get on the cringeworthy side of things in places. Again, don't want to give away any spoilers, but I couldn't help thinking "League of Gentlemen" on occasion... :)

On the whole though, I really enjoyed it. It looks exactly like the game, without question. From the moment she arrives in Silent Hill and first starts chasing the girl, it's so close to the original. And I must also commend the director/producer/writer for not compromising the plot to adhere to they typical Hollywood 'accessibility' norm - if you've never witnessed the game (as was probably the case with the three f**king women that sat behind me blabbing throughout) you may well have a tough time with the film. But if you have, then you'll most likely love it.

Note to Sean Bean: Remember in future to steer clear from roles that are not set in Barnsley...

Finally saw Silent Hill last night, thoroughly enjoyed it too. Due to Resident Evil series being more my thing, I missed playing the Silent Hill games. Now I know I've been missing a lot. Looks like that Silent Hill pack will have to purchased now.

Also due to get a cheap PSP soon so I can get that version of the first game too.

I thought Rahda Mitchell done a good job in her role, great eye candy watching her run everywhere. I'll be buying once that dvd comes out, and to be honest I feel more complled to do so than I ever have for the RE films. Next to Advent Children, game-film wise Silent Hill is damn good stuff. Konami should feel really proud of it.

Thank you Mr Gans, give us a sequel maybe.

*possible spilers ahead*

boy i wish i coudl be as positive about it as you two. I'm by no means a film conosuier (sp?) but aside from the direction and effects... the content of the movie (i.e plot/dialog/acting) was pretty terrible :/

the little girl was good except when she was playign the evil bit and the mom and dad and detective are fine. but the girl cop was lame ,as was the "other mother".

I personaly wish they hadn't done so damned much explaining of the plot. I loved silent hill, and by the end of it i still had no clue what was going on... the whole thing was about being lost in the strange place full of horibel unexplainable things... really made you uneasy. this movie took that and ran with it for like the first hour, and then the explanatiosn started pouring in. (badly writen explanations might i add)

Most horrow films at least have the sense to remain misterious through the first one before s**tting everythign up in the sequels (freddy, jason, jeepers creepers, you name it).

Anyway, for the part sthat where good, they where awsome... i coudl have watched two hours of her dodging wird monsters and pyramid head and skipped the whole church thing all together.

overal id give the film a "C", whats good is great, but whats bad is terribel.

good job to mr gans, but who ever wrote the screen play aught to be shot, i dont care if he wrote pulp fiction. he must have suffered a seveare head trauma in the interm.
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I see your point and with big budget shows like 24 and Lost, it could be given a budget to do it justice. Although a show of hands who thinks the only station who will pick it up is Sci-Fi. I suppose its doomed either way. But for the movie, I think you could boil the game down to it's most important parts. Remember that most of the game your running around doing whatever the hell you want. I don't think audiences want to see the vault dweller smashing rats with spiked knuckles. I was thinking an overall narrative from a look back in time perspective, which could be voiced by one of the villagers from Arroyo (the town where the descendant of the vault dweller begins in Fallout 2, which would lead to an inevitable sequel). And have him tell the tale of the vault dweller, but also show what's happening from other parts of California, other parts of the world possibly. So whenever the game story gets boring, just leave him to progress and entertain us with fun bits that are happening at the same time. Nah, I haven't thought about this much.

But either way, movie or series, it's gonna suck. I don't understand why filmmakers and screenwriters and producers and movie houses and the guys in charge of making these things into 4 star masterpieces don't realize the reason these games would even make a great movie. The reason we play games and the reason we watch movies about them and vice-versa is all about the overall story and overall world these things inhabit. I want to see Final Fantasy VI as a movie because Vector would look awesome realized as a working town, because Setzer is an engaging character, because the whole game exudes make me into a film.

Why make a movie off a crappy game or a game that has no story (Double Dragon and Super Mario Bros.)? At least the books they turn into movies are classics or at least good reads. Come on movie studios, try at least.

Perhaps they're just scared because video games are beginning to be a bigger business then they are. I can't say that I really have any desire to see many new movies, whereas 2 years ago I'd be quite willing to mooch down to the local Odeon every week. These video game to movies seem to pander to the teenage boy heavily, which kinda alienates the rest of us.

Hopefully the Halo movie will be created in the spirit of the universe (which I think is fleshed out rather well, is slightly inconsistently in the novels) and made into an intelligent action movie (ala serenity) that does something for the franchise's plot (god that sounds weird saying). I don't hold much hope though.

i want to see a live action dragon ball z movie...that would roxxorz.

bad news?

good news?

roxxorz? that remains to be seen ;)

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OK. Tyrion, Config and I just got back from seeing the Silent Hill movie. And for a while there, I really thought it was going to be something special. The production design in the early part of the movie is simply superb, the game is evoked perfectly, with some scenes being virtually identical to those we've seen on our PlayStations...

The director, Christophe Gans, who did a brilliant job of directing Crying Freemand and Brotherhood of the Wolf, wastes little time in establishing the story, and takes us quickly and efficiently to the "ghost town' of Silent Hill. And from here in, the mood of subtle creeping horror is captured perfectly... and for about half a hour the movie is very good.

But then, the Hollywood vibe kicks in, and the movie tries to explain (and justify) itself. That old staple of the horror movie without an original idea - the revenge for a witch burning - is wheeled out, and the movie Silently goes down-Hill and quickly.

We move quickly from truly disturbing to a hilarious "show down" with the major demon where it manifests itself as a barbed wire tentacle creature. There a good deal of blood, but very little sense of justice or closure. While this differs fromt he stereotype for this kind of movie, it's still hugely anti-climatic.

There is one glimmer of hope at the very end, when the usual neat and tidy Hollywood happy ending is eschewed in favour of something more vague - but it's probably just a convenient opening for a sequel rather than any real creativity.

It's a shame is this one. Many people thought it would be an exemplary game-to-movie conversion, and it currently has a high 6.9 score on IMDB... I've heard it spoken of in the same breath of Resident Evil which many people seem to think is a very poor movie. But of the two, I'd rather watch RE any day of the week.