One Star Wonders Part II

Leprechaun (1993) and Silent Hill Revelation 3D (2012)

What do you say about a film that is so bad it leaves you speechless? Presenting the second installment of One-Star Wonders, a segment reserved for films that are so bad they do not meet any of my criteria in full.

*****

Up first, Leprechaun. This film gets one star for somehow making me truly believe it would be a fun viewing experience. 

When a little boy finds a lucky pot of gold at the end of the rainbow he sees it as the perfect opportunity to - well, I’m not sure.. Be rich, I guess. He does claim at one point that he will use the money to get his friend an operation to make him smart (the man appears to have a  learning disability that is used distastefully at times for comedic effect). At another point however he states that he knows that such an operation does not exist. So, nix the heartwarming child’s tale angle.

I put this on thinking to myself - Jennifer Aniston, Magic and Gore, what could go wrong? Well, let’s see - the dialogue is never believable, and the contrast between the Leprechaun’s big personality and the rather boring characters he is after leaves the film feeling disconnected from itself most of the time. Worse, it has not aged well, especially compared to Freddy movies, many of which are also tongue-and-cheek but rarely slack on the sinister elements, which this picture is definitely guilty of doing. Although the gore and SFX are really not that bad, it’s just not very effective when the story continues to drag on and on. 

* * * * * 

Next up, Silent Hill Revelation 3D. Half a star for creepy imagery (although the CGI was more distracting than in the first). Half for having a pretty good story premise to work with. Too bad the delivery was so weak.

I’m just glad I had the sense not to bother seeing this in 3D. I think by now it’s clear that the 3D fad has run its course. Hollywood continues to milk it by focusing on visual effects at the expense of well thought out storytelling, leaving this, the sequel to a good film, as one of the most recent victims. 

So what is the story? All grown up since the last time we saw her in 2006, Sharon/Elessa (played by Michelle Williams’s mini-me) teams up with John Snow (or whatever his name was) to track down her father when he is dragged to Silent Hill. While I liked that she had no recollection of her experiences there, partnering her up with a child of the order means it did not get to fully utilize methods of suspense. 

And while we’re on the topic… If he had to suffer the torture of having his body etched to get out of Silent Hill, how did someone just walk off with Elessa? It did seem to have a solid plan for itself at some point, but eventually it all started to feel rushed and thrown together. Two thumbs down.