Simulacrum? Simulacrap.

So, yeah, the trailer to the movie version of Silent Hill has appeared online. Uwe Boll aside (I actually haven't gotten around to subjecting myself to his films yet), the trend of adapting video games into movies seems dumb to me. Here's why:

With very few exceptions, video games that boast a strong "interactive" narrative have very little identity of their own. Rather, they're often guilty of striving to recreate the feeling of certain movies within a poorly conceived alternate construct. Usually Aliens. Sometimes, if you're lucky, you get about 10 minutes of Romero-inspired zombie killing before the makers of the game decide that it's necessary to bring the player some Aliens inspired shootemupping. So when they turn around and make one of these games into a film, you've got a situation where the makers are trying to recapture the feeling the player had that this game was just like Aliens. Or Night of the Living Dead. Or whatever. Additionally, playing a video game (in single player mode) is a solo, personal experience. But since no one thinks anyone wants to watch 90 minutes of one character roaming through an office complex killing giant monsters without talking to anyone (I'd like to see it tried at least), this aspect of the experience has to be adapted so that there are many sidekick-people who get killed. Yay! Formula!

So now we have Silent Hill which seems far more competent than the Uwe Boll craptacularisms. And, you know, I've played some of the Silent Hill games and yes, they're scary in a "holy God what is around the corner" kind-of way, but they're so ultimately vacuous, spook-for-spook sakes experiences, that I cannot possibly imagine what will be gained by sitting down in a theatre and watching other characters accidentally press the X button when they meant to press the O and thus get bludgeoned to death by a mutant nurse.

I like video games. I just wish they would grow up. And the movies should know better by now.