Silent Hill: Revelation isn't the worst movie that I've ever seen. The first film was fairly good, so that does make the second one seem worse by comparison, but it was only normally bad rather than
Postal bad.
The main issue that I had with the movie was that it attempted to work as an adaptation of the third video game, rather than a straight sequel to the first movie. I'm sure that someone else has said that before in this thread, but it bears repeating. The first movie was an adaptation of the first video game, but in the translation to the big screen, it became very different. Some parts were added, while some parts were left out. The motivation of the cult, the goal of the main character, the temporal setting (1970s vs. 2000s), and the ending were all very different.
So, the only way to adapt the third movie to the screen directly was with a horrifying amount of retconing, to the extent that it approaches the level of a
voodoo shark. Rather than make a second movie where Christopher da Silva goes back to Silent Hill to look for his wife, or something connected to the plot of the first movie but not necessarily the main characters, they made something nominally linked to the first film, but so confusing that it sounds like fan fiction from someone who liked the video games but
hated the first movie with a passion.
The worst victim of that is the character of Sharon da Silva. By the end of the first movie, it was pretty clearly the intention of the director that Sharon and Alessa were rejoined. She spends 90% of the movie being easily frightened by anything connected with Silent Hill (as most people would, quite frankly), then starts behaving calm and collected after seeing something that would give most people (not to mention children) the worst case of PTSD imaginable. She pretty clearly and deliberately snubs her biological mother and goes to be with her adoptive mother. Obviously, what Rose attempts to take home with her is not just her own daughter.
Beginning of the second movie?
Bam, convenient amnesia. Her mother went back to the town from Ohio for some reason, found half of the seal of Metatron somehow ("Wait, half of the what?" asks everyone who has only ever seen the first movie), and sent her back without any memories because Silent Hill: Revelation really just wanted a blank slate.
The plot was confusing, as well. I know the plot of the video games, so I got it easily. If I hadn't? Not a chance. That's literally the only reason why I was able to enjoy it at all. There were some good points, like the scene where Alessa was walking through the town destroying everything around her. While it doesn't fit the general vibe surrounding her from the first movie, it's still pretty awesome looking for what it is. Still, add a healthy dose of confusion, and even that would fall apart.
Beyond that, there were a few other bad points. Dialogue wasn't horrendous, but it wasn't that great, either. Heather's response to her "hallucinations" is so muted that it makes me wonder how many times that's happened before. Did she constantly hallucinate visions of a young child being shoved around and called a witch, while being told never to go to a place she had never heard of by her father,
without asking any questions? She had no memories of her childhood (apparently not even her adoptive childhood), so did she really never wonder whether there might be some connection?
Also, the Pop-Tarts.
Overall, probably 3 or 4 starts out of 10, on a genuine "5 stars is average" scale. Not horrible, but yeah. Not good.