Being an avid PC gamer and having played both Max Payne & Max Payne 2: The fall of Max Payne, I decided to check out the movie adaptation of it yesterday. Even though the movie featured Mark Wahlberg, who usually picks the right movies, I had my doubts regarding the movie since it appeared as if the movie did not have an early screening for critics. In the past, I've noticed that such movies usually end up being real bad. On top of this, the Tomatometer at RottenTomatoes.com was at 17% for Max Payne at the time we decided to go see the movie.
After sitting through the movie, I wish I had paid more attention to these "signs" and had never seen the movie. It was truly horrible and is an insult to the Max Payne franchise and movie-goers as a whole. The graphics were sub-par and action sequences were less intense. The revenge, the drama, the suspense, the darkness of the characters, even the comic-strip like cut-scenes from the original games were all lost in the Movie. The movie tries to be an Action Movie, a Suspense Thriller, a Drama all at the same time and fails miserably. This is understandable since the original story-line from the game involves all of the previously mentioned aspects.
When you take a 10 hour story-line from a game and turn it into a movie that runs for 90 minutes, it would be better if the writers pick one aspect of the game and stayed with it. It feels like the movie would have done much better if it had been a 100% revenge-action movie with more action and more (well, at least a couple more) bullet-time sequences. It would have been interesting not only to the game-fans but even to the general-public.
As usual, Mark Wahlberg did his job well which is the only good thing I could say about the movie. Mila Kunis (as I expected) did not fit the role of Mona Sax. Anyone who has played the game would have definitely had a "wth?" moment when they realized that Mila Kunis would be playing Mona Sax. And, I'm sure even those who haven't played the game, would have felt this when they left the theaters. I think It was a poor casting choice (not that a different actress would have made the movie any better).
After watching this pathetic adaptation of a game that I enjoyed playing, I only hope that the Movie Studios leave alone all the other great games.
Image courtesy: Yahoo Movies.
After sitting through the movie, I wish I had paid more attention to these "signs" and had never seen the movie. It was truly horrible and is an insult to the Max Payne franchise and movie-goers as a whole. The graphics were sub-par and action sequences were less intense. The revenge, the drama, the suspense, the darkness of the characters, even the comic-strip like cut-scenes from the original games were all lost in the Movie. The movie tries to be an Action Movie, a Suspense Thriller, a Drama all at the same time and fails miserably. This is understandable since the original story-line from the game involves all of the previously mentioned aspects. When you take a 10 hour story-line from a game and turn it into a movie that runs for 90 minutes, it would be better if the writers pick one aspect of the game and stayed with it. It feels like the movie would have done much better if it had been a 100% revenge-action movie with more action and more (well, at least a couple more) bullet-time sequences. It would have been interesting not only to the game-fans but even to the general-public.
As usual, Mark Wahlberg did his job well which is the only good thing I could say about the movie. Mila Kunis (as I expected) did not fit the role of Mona Sax. Anyone who has played the game would have definitely had a "wth?" moment when they realized that Mila Kunis would be playing Mona Sax. And, I'm sure even those who haven't played the game, would have felt this when they left the theaters. I think It was a poor casting choice (not that a different actress would have made the movie any better).
After watching this pathetic adaptation of a game that I enjoyed playing, I only hope that the Movie Studios leave alone all the other great games.
Image courtesy: Yahoo Movies.
