I never said anybody was dumb, sorry if it came across that way. I was just saying it's strange that nobody can see ANY symbolism in here.
I'm not trying to change anybody's mind, I just don't like the attitude that those of us who enjoyed it are dumbasses. If I've given the impression that I'm implying the same thing about the people who didn't then I apologise for that.
It's certainly not the smartest movie in the world, the dialogue is fitting for a halloween popcorn flick etc., but that's exactly how Silent Hill 3 was. There was symbolism in SH3 but a lot of the deep character study you read about is blatantly people who loved SH2 reading too far between the lines. I loved the way it built up from disturbing nightmares/visions to atmospheric wandering to big fireworks. I get it, some of you don't want fireworks, you want SH2-styled morbidity, but when this movie is setting things on fire and pitting giant monsters against one another, the game is setting things on fire and pitting a giant monster against a teenage girl with a machine gun.
I do have to say though, Silent Hill isn't ABOUT the symbolism. It's pretty much just us hardcores who get all obsessed with that. Most gamers play Silent Hill and go "man that is a freaky monster" and leave it there. The symbolism can be just as obscure in the games too. Things like "James found the nurses at the hospital sexy" or "Cheryl liked butterflies" aren't going to win awards for context.
FrankRD wrote:DistantJ wrote:FrankRD wrote:I saw the same situation with Sucker Punch, a movie Zack Snyder put little thought into
FrankRD wrote:It was the antithesis of what Lynch, and subsequently, his fans, did with Mulholland Dr.
Those are two movies I really really love and find a lot of meaning in. Sucker Punch maybe not so much meaning but there was some symbolism there and there was definitely effort in it. Mulholland Dr. is one of my all time favourites.
Then we just see things differently, because I thought Sucker Punch was a pretty but shallow pseudo-psychological movie. See? That, I think, means there's more to this discussion than the one-sided view that is ''you don't see it, but I see it; and the creator thinks it should be seen, so who's right?'' You think people are being unfair to the film by dismissing most of the apparently intended depth to it, but you're being unfair to these people by assuming they're acting blind to them instead of recognizing that the product in itself
might not be clear enough for everyone. There's also the fact that people didn't react as negatively to the first one, which means there's something different in the approach this film takes that ultimately affects the appreciation the public might be willing to give to it.
Oh I recognise that it might not be clear, but these same people were complaining that Downpour's symbolism was too obvious. Genuinely though there are parts I felt were obvious, as obvious as you're going to get without giving Vincent even more silly 'here's me explaining everything' lines (seriously, I hated Vincent's dialogue, he was inches away from starting every line with "If you've just joined us..."). I mean stuff like a monster with a hole in its face showing its scrambled brains, in a mental asylum, we all know what that is supposed to mean. That alone shows that he understands the symbolism, and if that monster represents something the others must too. I don't think I am being very obscure at all when I see an all female, all thin, all attractive group of travellers being attacked by mannequins and plastic, and see meaning in it.
When the subjectivity of nightmares in Silent Hill is mentioned more than once, by more than one character, could you really say I'm overthinking things to say that a part of the film involving a monster and environment completely different to the rest, which has been attacking people nothing to do with the cult (when Alessa's darkness tends to spare Dahlia) long before Heather arrived, is somebody else's nightmare?
I found the Seal of Macguffintron, Vincent's dialogue and "Christopher my love" as cheesy as anybody else did, but then
Silent Hill 3 was cheesy. I'm sorry but I can't take it seriously when people say they want a more subtle and mature movie in which a girl miscarries through her mouth and overcomes the dark part of her soul with a submachine gun.
Where we're from, the birds sing a pretty song, and there's always music in the air.