Skele wrote:What irks me is the shots he's taken at those who didn't enjoy it. I've always thought of him as a kool guy, so i hope he doesn't leave for good.
He's probably just frustrated because he liked the movie and can't understand why he's in the minority. That is a frustrating position to be in, believe me I know.
Even though I personally didn't like the movie very much, I can sort of see why a Silent Hill fan might like it, because I thought it contained hints of good stuff. There are certain scenes of Heather just walking through the city alone that I thought were legitimately good. Now if they could have just rewrote the script, gutted out all the useless exposition, redone the soundtrack, and made the whole movie mostly like those scenes, (while also looking at other movies like the last 1/2 hour of The Evil Dead for inspiration on how to handle single characters in a scary environment) I think it could have been a great movie. But hey, not everyone thinks the way I do.
It is nice to see a forum that doesn't say "don't let the door hit your butt on the way out" when I rage quit. I appreciate that very much, and I guess it's swayed me, but you gotta understand where I am coming from...
Here's the thing, I am always the first to defend the concept of subjectivity and opinions, but what I really detest is the whole idea that there's also this separate 'objective' plane which is infallible, the whole "I liked it but I know that it's bad" thing I've always believed to be total BS because if it made you happy then it can't be a bad thing. Especially in cases like Michael Bay films which only displease those who they were never even aimed at in the first place. The idea that something just "was bad" just irks me so much. Fine, this is the review topic, but it's when it leaks out elsewhere and people start talking about it as if it is objective and it does start to become a bit of an unintentional put down to the people who it worked for. This stuff even spreads out into news articles and editorials about completely unrelated stuff, where a Cracked article may refer to something as "as dumb as a Michael Bay fan" etc., always assuming everybody agrees etc. and condemning things to become 'guilty pleasures', that a person must feel guilty for enjoying, even though it set out particularly to entertain them the exact way it did. It's fine when you have something almost unanimously disliked, but go to IMDb and you'll find as many 10 star reviews as there are 1 star ones, and the 10 star guys deserve more credit.
"The guys that masturbate to Meryl Streep – they send those guys to review us" - Robert Englund on Nightmare on Elm Street reviews.
Halloween WAS met with negative reviews when it came out, somebody tried to contest that, but watch any documentary about the history of the series or John Carpenter interview and you'll see that for the most part it was lambasted by critics until years down the line.
I gotta say, I'm not as much of a minority as you guys are making me out to be. I'm the minority in this topic for sure, but the "yes" bar in the poll is pretty big and the inbetween bar is clearly way ahead of the "no", so more people in total found something to enjoy here. IMDb still rates it above average and the facebook page shows that when people like this film, they REALLY like it. Again I'm taken back to Rob Zombie's Halloween, the vocal part of the internet would have you believe that it is universally hated but when you go out there a lot of people really love it.
@Tillerman, it most certainly is a small world. This evening I was watching The Evil Dead (one of my favourite films) and admiring how they pulled off the whole last chunk of the film with Ash completely alone (usually a single character alone with nobody to ask questions etc. is suicide in the film medium but Evil Dead is a beautiful enigma of indie film), and I was thinking how great a Silent Hill film done that way could be! Great to read you saying the exact thing I was thinking about an hour ago!
I think the thing about "Heather walking alone through the city" for me is that I've seen that all before and it becomes boring. All the games, the first movie etc., it'd only be retreading old ground, it was just nice for me to see something exciting and hard hitting and a nice wrap up to the first film (which, if you must know, I prefer over all of the games except SH2, Shattered Memories and Downpour), but then I don't have an idea of what Silent Hill "should be", if anything I believe it should continue to keep doing different things (I mean if you cut out SH3, the original Japanese games are all so drastically different to each other in tone, pacing and visual style), it's when it tries to be the same that it fails (Origins and Homecoming in particular).
I love this series, now more than ever, and it sucks to feel like I'm almost coming here just to be 'talked out of it'. Maybe I saw more in this movie than was there, but my movie buddy Chris, who only ever played SH1, 2 and 3 years ago, loved it even more than I did, and saw most of the symbolism I did without having to look. I felt that the world the film created was gorgeous, the monsters were amazing, environments were atmospheric, Malcolm McDowell was sensational and Adelaide Clemens was a great protagonist. The dialogue wasn't realistic in the slightest, it was pantomimey as hell and there was one scene I couldn't stand (Vincent's "Hi, here's the whole plot of the film so far and what's to come, kthx" in the Motel) but none of this was enough to bring it down for me. The big fight at the end may not have been everybody's cup of tea but around the net I've seen some people raving about how much they loved that part and, although I may not believe that this type of finale is in fitting with the more subtle and personal tone of Silent Hill which has come together over the years, consider me one of them. I always like to see new concepts introduced to SH (besides, when we play it safe we end up with Origins) which is why I don't often jump on the "this doesn't belong in SH" bandwagon. I suppose when you've been bugged by the iffy dialogue and it gets to this point and you can't accept this kind of finale in a Silent Hill, then the film's doomed, but personally I love when the series grows some balls and actually does something visceral with its surreal monsters.
So yeah...
Where we're from, the birds sing a pretty song, and there's always music in the air.
You're totally right that people tend to act like a majority opinion is the same as objective fact. And of course it's not, there's no objective way to measure if a movie is bad. Of course, that doesn't mean opinions exist in a vacuum either, some opinions feel more well informed than others, but that really all comes down to salesmanship. I can't prove to you that my opinion about the Silent Hill movie is right, all I can do is to try and explain my opinion in a convincing way.
I'm glad you share my love for Evil Dead... it's actually my all time favorite movie. (although Return of the Living Dead is catching up with it.) It's funny, because we apparently have some very different viewpoints on the Silent Hill series, but that doesn't mean we don't have some common ground.
anyhow, i checked imdb yesterday and sure enough Revelations has got a pretty decent rating there. As a horror fan, Evil Dead is definitely up there as one of my faves. My only hopes is that the reboot is just as good (a Bruce cameo would also be awesome).
Haha and yeah Tillerman, if this film would've had what you suggested, i would've left the theater thinking it was awesome. As others have said, hopefully there's a director's cut.
I saw Revelation the day it came out, in 2D, although I'm only just now getting an opportunity to review it. I really don't feel like yelling about this any more, so I'll just list what I think are the pros and cons.
The plot makes no goddamned sense. This one'll have to be broken into several parts.
At the end of Silent Hill The Movie, during the slaughter at the church, EVERYONE DIED. EVERYONE. And suddenly, during this movie, there are people ALL OVER THE FUCKING PLACE. In the mental hospital, the amusement park, the buildings on the streets of Silent Hill, the Sanctuary--nothing but people all over. And in one memorable scene in Brookhaven, all UNDER the place, too. It's hard to get a sense of isolation and desperate fear when you're constantly surrounded.
The cult from the first movie and the Order from this one had diametrically opposed motivations and core beliefs, yet SOMEHOW, they've been bullshitted as the same thing. Oh, please, Mr. Genius Writer-Director, explain why the cult deadset against magic and happiness and witches and demons who clearly wanted the little girl dead in the first movie would want her to be their mother of god in the second.
The fog looked like ass. Actually, most of the digital effects looked like ass.
Everyone whose name doesn't begin with Adelaide and end with Clemens doesn't seem to know how NOT to phone it in.
The murder-suspect-frame-job subplot just disappears halfway through the movie. C'mon, this could've been interesting!
There was some really, really bad dialogue in here, but the worst offender was Rose constantly saying "my love" to Chris. Jeez, I literally cringed when I heard it.
Finally, the forced romance between wooden Kit Harrington and repulsed Adelaide Clemens had nothing to do with anything, and shoehorning it in just doesn't work.
I'm sorry for ranting, but this has been pent-up in my brain for three weeks. Just couldn't take it anymore.
But really, this movie kinda... blew. The first half wasn't half-bad, but the second half, where all the unnecessary exposition and ridiculous retconning and Syfy-channel-level effects happen, ended up shitting the bed.
At the end of Silent Hill The Movie, during the slaughter at the church, EVERYONE DIED. EVERYONE. And suddenly, during this movie, there are people ALL OVER THE FUCKING PLACE. In the mental hospital, the amusement park, the buildings on the streets of Silent Hill, the Sanctuary--nothing but people all over.
In the first film Alessa slaughtered anybody who was in the church. This film shows that there is at least one other sanctuary, and places where people are locked away as well.
The murder-suspect-frame-job subplot just disappears halfway through the movie. C'mon, this could've been interesting!
I guess, but I remember everybody's complaints about Sean Bean's scenes in the first film (which I actually quite liked)... I figured it was the idea was to give Heather the final push to get out of there and go to Silent Hill.
Where we're from, the birds sing a pretty song, and there's always music in the air.
I'm not sure why she needed a final push. I love the movie, but I still think that little sub plot that lasts 5 whole minutes was useless. Since it does get very little time within the movie, it doesn't really matter I guess. The fact that it's there and then dissapears makes it seem sloppy though.
WARNING: Some Parts of Reality May Seem Violent or Cruel.
Yeah I hear ya. Could well be something that might be present on the DVD, since this theatrical release reeked of studio cutting to sell to halloween audiences.
Where we're from, the birds sing a pretty song, and there's always music in the air.
It would be nice if a Director's Cut is released and fixes some of the pacing issues and maybe explains some of the plot holes in the movie, but I won't hold my breath either.
WARNING: Some Parts of Reality May Seem Violent or Cruel.
Silent Fantasy wrote:I'm not sure why she needed a final push. I love the movie, but I still think that little sub plot that lasts 5 whole minutes was useless. Since it does get very little time within the movie, it doesn't really matter I guess. The fact that it's there and then dissapears makes it seem sloppy though.
That is one of the many reasons why I'll regard the first and second films as separate 'canons.' Putting them together into one requires an author.
Silent Fantasy wrote:It would be nice if a Director's Cut is released and fixes some of the pacing issues and maybe explains some of the plot holes in the movie, but I won't hold my breath either.
I KNOW WHAT THIS MOVIE NEEDS.
MOAR EXPOSITION
*shoots himself in the head*
"Oh yeah, I've been here before
I can see it with eyes closed
Shadows that look like blood
Dead as far as the mind goes
Fear that comes from my head
Lives in the mirror"
There is no possible way to explain how Alessa wouldn't know a whole boatload of people were still living all over the alternate reality. It makes no sense whatsoever that the super-powerful psionic who created the entire fucking alternate reality didn't realize there was an entire other church of people and a mental hospital full of patients. There is no excuse that can explain that. It overturns the entire fucking point of the first movie. Bassett simply didn't care enough to find a more logical and less "I'm GONNA RETCON UR WORLD" way to put together the sequel because fuck the fans of the first movie.
The movie was actually ok, I was expecting it to be worse than that! Although I did laugh pretty hard when Claudia and PH started to fight. I was like, am I watching Moral Kombat right now? lmfao
JKristine35 wrote:There is no possible way to explain how Alessa wouldn't know a whole boatload of people were still living all over the alternate reality. It makes no sense whatsoever that the super-powerful psionic who created the entire fucking alternate reality didn't realize there was an entire other church of people and a mental hospital full of patients. There is no excuse that can explain that. It overturns the entire fucking point of the first movie. Bassett simply didn't care enough to find a more logical and less "I'm GONNA RETCON UR WORLD" way to put together the sequel because fuck the fans of the first movie.
The first movie was unified and the story wraps up its own ends. Only a retconartist could make a sequel.
