Return to Silent Hill - Review Thread

• Rotten Tomatoes: 6% (17 Reviews)
• Metacritic: 30 (6 Reviews)

Reviews:

TotalFilm (1.5/5):

Loosely based on the 2001 game Silent Hill 2, Return to Silent Hill can be an atmospheric horror film with original creature designs worthy of Konami's legendary franchise. But a confusing plot, mediocre visual effects, and over-the-top acting might make director Christophe Gans' newest Silent Hill adaptation just as divisive as his first attempt 20 years ago.

IGN (50):

Return to Silent Hill isn’t the worst entry in this video game movie series, but it fails to accomplish anything that the source material doesn’t do better.

The Guardian (2/5):

20 years later, Gans still can’t figure out how to escape the open-ended confinement of gameplay, or even give it the forward momentum of a game with a mission.

Slant (12):

Christophe Gans’s film does away with all the psychosexual nuance of Silent Hill 2.

Collider (3/10):

It makes all the sense in the world that fourteen years after Silent Hill: Revelation, the best way to make this movie series relevant again would be to retell the game’s best story, and with the director of the original film. But with bad direction, terrible acting, and a world that has no weight behind it (especially since most of it was clearly made in a computer), this isn’t the way to bring Silent Hill 2 to the big screen. This powerful survival horror story has been turned into an ugly, laughable adaptation that proves that maybe we should’ve never gone back to Silent Hill.

The Gamer:

Return to Silent Hill isn’t a bad movie. There are still some entertaining moments and scenes of great tension waiting for you. However, this nature of making things more complicated for the sake of it and the lack of nuance left me with a bittersweet taste in my mouth: this should have been a great return for the series to the big screen, and it ended up feeling lukewarm.

AwardsWatch (C-):

Return to Silent Hill never captures the smothering, oppressive dread of the game, mainly because it’s a property with a premise built on immersion.

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Directed by Christophe Ganz:

James is devastated after being separated from his soulmate and receives a mysterious letter that leads him back to a town called Silent Hill, where he hopes to find her. However, he discovers that the town has been changed by some unknown malevolent force and as he delves deeper into the town, he finds terrifying figures, both familiar and unfamiliar. Doubting his mental stability, he tries to comprehend reality and hopes to stay strong enough to rescue his beloved.

I was thinking recently about how mind blowing it is that Werner Herzog actually had people haul the steamboat over the mountain for his movie Fitzcarraldo. I started to wonder what other insane feats have been done for movies.

What are real world, practical feats and actions that did not use computers and would be considered above and beyond to get something in camera.

Reviews are starting to come out for Amazon's 'Mercy'. Lot of people expecting this to be a dud but let's see... I'll update this post with reviews I keep finding.

Rotten Tomatoes - 21%

Metacritic - 39/100

Reviews:

The Independent - 1 / 5

A baffling piece of work that happily swipes the mood and aesthetics of Hollywood’s police state dystopias (Minority Report, RoboCop, Blade Runner etc), while presenting such horrors as an agreeable norm.

ThePragueReporter

TheGeekTyrant

I walked away feeling genuinely entertained and a little impressed. It is not a movie that completely reinvents sci-fi thrillers, but it delivers a tight, engaging ride with strong performances and a concept that keeps your brain busy the entire time.

DEADLINE

All the technical production elements are first rate, and I guarantee this one will have you on the edge of your seat in its compact running time. It was shot for IMAX, and in a movie all about screens dominating our lives, this one is ideal to be seen on the biggest one of all if you have a chance like I did.

The Hollywood Reporter

Taking place in real time, Mercy mercifully moves along fairly briskly. But after it’s over you’ll definitely feel the need for a digital detox. While Pratt can be effective in the right vehicle (Jurassic World, Guardians of the Galaxy), he’s very dependent on his athletic physicality. Watching him as he sits motionless in a chair for nearly 90 minutes, not able to resort to the humor with which he often peppers his performances, mainly serves as a demonstration of his limitations as an actor. Ferguson comes off much better, especially when she subtly reveals the hints of emotionality that begin to seep into her character’s data-driven persona.