Still Better Than A Uwe Boll Movie

I loved Max Payne. Wait, let me clarify. I loved the Max Payne as a video game. I loved its sequel, Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne. However, I was horrified by the movie version of Max Payne.

I know some out there complained that Mark Wahlberg portraying the title character was a poor casting choice. I don’t really feel that way, though. The acting really isn’t the problem with this movie. The story is the problem, and the story is boring. Now, the video game, in my opinion, actually had a wonderful, compelling story. The movie somehow takes that story and makes it incomprehensible to the point where I just didn’t care about it. Only by thinking about how the story went in the game was I able to decipher what was going on in the movie. This only made me wish I was playing the game again instead of watching this movie.

Nothing happens in the first half of the movie. There’s no real action until the last half of the movie, and even that is minimal. It seems like the creative team attempted to focus on the story rather than on the signature action and violence of the game. I’m all for that approach as long as the story they focus on is actually good. This story was a slow, dawdling mess that quickly lost my interest.

My expectations for this movie were low, but I hoped that it at least would take the Punisher: War Zone approach and go all out with the action to be an incredibly enjoyable experience. Like previously stated, it tried to focus on the story instead, and failed miserably. However, Max Payne isn’t a complete loss. The few action scenes are beautifully done, just infrequent and short. In fact, most of them were seen at length in the trailer. So, if you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve already seen nearly all of what’s good about Max Payne.

The best thing I can say about Max Payne is that the style and look of the movie is amazing. It’s a dark and moody film with realistic film noir qualities heightened by exaggerated Sin City stylization. In the commercials, the angels/demons flying around concerned me, since there were no such things in the game. Explained as drug induced hallucinogenic nightmares, these creatures actually accentuate the look of the film. In fact, one of the most impressive moments occurs after Max ingests some of the drug himself and begins to have his own visions of these flying valkyries. Burning embers join the snowflakes that swirl down around Mark Wahlberg while the sky opens up revealing a horde of these terrifying apparitions. Max Payne works great as desktop wallpaper, but its bland story can’t support it as a film.

The game was better.

Max Payne isn’t a horrible movie. It’s just not very good. It did remind me of just how great the games were and makes me want to go back and play them again. So, I’m excited about that. And the movie is still much better than anything made by Uwe Boll. If you want to feel better about Max Payne, go watch the atrocious BloodRayne. In light of that comparison, Max Payne isn’t that bad of a video game adaptation, after all.

1/2 Toddsperience

And don't call me Boo.