Movie review: Max Payne
Viewed on: Blu-Ray
Released: 2008
I'd totally forgotten about this movie even existing. Having recently played through Max Payne 1 & 2 by Remedy, review here, and Rockstar's Max Payne 3, review here, I was reminded of this movie while rummaging about on Max Payne info on Wikipedia.
I'd totally forgotten about this movie even existing. Having recently played through Max Payne 1 & 2 by Remedy, review here, and Rockstar's Max Payne 3, review here, I was reminded of this movie while rummaging about on Max Payne info on Wikipedia.
Suffice to say, I had to get myself a copy and finally watch it. With all the MP titles fresh in my memory, it was the perfect time to do so.
I was kind surprised to find out that there were quite a few famous actors in the movie; Mark Wahlberg as Max Payne and Mila Kunis as Mona Sax for starters. While other names like Beau Bridges, head of security and a friend to Max, and even Olga Kurylenko, of James Bond fame, and rapper Ludacris turn up!
The movie takes it's inspiration from the dark and gritty, snowy New York of the first two games. Delving into a Noir style storytelling, which ironically Max Payne borrowed from movies in the first place. Wahlberg does a fine job portraying the moody and worn down Max, seeking revenge over his wife's killer. Complete with a lot of his inner thoughts being projected as dark metaphors.
It even manages to successfully capture the visual style from the games. With a dark, rainy and snowy city, an excellent backdrop to a ruthless and dark criminal story. Although it rarely shows itself, even the bullet time firefights capture the games quite well.
Yet, here lies a problem with the movie. While it on one hand builds it's story in a slow and intriguing fashion, it's leans way too heavy on the the dialogue versus the action. The ratio is way off compared to the games. When the action finally kicks in, it only wets the appetite and leaves you wishing for more. The action is well done, but way too short segments and far between.
While it basically follows the story of the first game, it changes things around, adds it's own ideas and changes the ending. Especially the drug from the criminal network Max is hunting down, is used in a weird and somewhat glorified way compared to the horror it was depicted as in the games. Dream-like sequences of angels are added, deviating from the original concept, adding nothing of importance to the story. Other key scenes are lost in the transition to the silver screen too, sadly.
It oozes visual atmosphere, pulls off a convincing story without being cringey and replicates the visual mood of the first two games. But falls flat on action and is more about the investigation part of Max's life and how he finds the bad guys than taking them down with gun skills.
As such, it misses the point of the games. Without the action we only have a Noir story, with overdone metaphors, which in turn was a deliberately overdone nod to cliches in movies when the game came out. With the movie only relying on this, with a ton of the action taken out, it moves slowly along and misses the point.
Max Payne was a lot about the gunfights, with the Matrix inspired bullet time, sadly the movie heavily under utilises this. It's an okay watch, just expect it to weirdly be lacking much gun action and replacing it with long dialogues of investigation. Looks the part, but an average experience to watch.
Creds for giving late, Max Payne voice actor, James McCaffrey a small cameo, though!
