First of all, this movie deserves way more than a 4 on IMDb. Like, come on , But I think people are upset that it’s not exactly like the game, and I agree that adapting the entire game’s story would’ve honestly made it much better. Still, the movie isn’t actually that bad, to be fair.
(SPOILERS AHEAD 🔥)
Pros:
The CGI is honestly pretty good. They nailed it in most scenes.
The casting was decent for the most part. The actress playing Laura is literally a copy of her in the game, but they gave her different hair and clothes for some reason. The actresses playing Mary also had pretty similar faces to her game counterparts, but they changed their hair and outfits too. I genuinely don’t know why.
Some scenes were recreated from the game incredibly well and looked really cinematic. I also like how they blended elements from both the original game and the remake.
Cons:
The actor playing James honestly wasn’t the best choice. The actress playing Angela doesn’t look like her at all, either. And it’s not even that hard to find people who look like these characters. The acting was also a bit questionable at times, to be honest.
The excessive changes to the story ruined it. Some scenes and plot points were changed, and honestly, some of those changes were pretty good. But others made me wonder what they were even trying to do. For example, the opening scene and the part at the end where James goes back to the past... I don’t even know how that’s supposed to work. It would’ve been better if they had just started with the scene where he’s standing in front of the mirror, looking at himself. Also, the whole thing with Mary’s father and the cult they made up was completely unnecessary. Honestly, having James kill her because she asked him too is a little small good change to the story, but They really went way too far with some other changes though.
Some scenes clearly had green screens, and that flying scene at the end was honestly ridiculous. I know it was supposed to be his imagination, but the way it looked was goofy as hell.
Final Verdict:
It’s a good movie, but the excessive changes to the story, the poor casting choices for James and Angela and fat dude ( I forgot his name ), and the weird thing where James keeps getting headaches and suddenly ends up in different places are all pretty strange. It feels like the director didn’t really know how to continue the story.
The small change they made to the story at the end was actually good ( not including how he went back for some reason), though.
I’d give it a 7/10 as a movie. If they had adapted the entire game’s story faithfully, I’d easily give it a 9/10.