Max Payne (2008) Review
By trulyalive 1 Comments
I like to think this is relevant
John Moore
Written by:
Beau Thorne
Sam Lake
Starring:
Mark Wahlberg
Mila Kunis
The Review:
What is it with video game movies? Why do they have such a tendency to suck?
I figured a while back that it had something to do with the studios looking at them as hot properties when they bought the name, but as time passed everyone concerned lost interest. The studios would give the project to some first-timer who wouldn't know what to do with himself. The project would break even, if lucky and a month later, no-one would remember. No-one except the first time director who had great plans that were crushed by one bad film.
I figured that was the case until I heard that George A. Romero was given Resident Evil and wrote a script for it. His version of the film never got made, which is a shame.
More of a shame is that Max Payne, based on the 2001 video game of the same name, got held back by John Moore who has yet to make a particularly good movie at all.
It's particularly unfortunate given how much the film had going for it before some amateur problems started to stall the films progress.
First things first, the casting is pretty good all across the board. No-one was expecting any exceptional performances from Max Payne but we got what we came for, hard boiled film-noir cops and druggies. It works. Mark Wahlberg just fits into the role without trying...I say that because you get the feeling that he isn't trying. Still, that's kind of the point of the character, and it doesn't hurt that Marky-Mark has a strong likeness to the character of the game.
So far, so good, right?
The visuals throughout the film are nothing short of lovely to look at. The poster shown above is a pretty good example of the visual style of Max Payne and it rarely lets up. Occasionally, there'll be a scene in behind closed doors that doesn't exactly feel in sync with the hard coldness of the rest of the film, but other than that the visual style is superb. The script however is particularly flawed.
Dialogue throughout the picture feels fairly natural. It matches the tone and the mise-en-scene of the film and it's unlikely you'll find much to complain about. It's when you make the mistake of thinking about the plot as it progresses. Characters just appearing at locations with no explanation as to why they're there or how about the most frustrating situation in a film ever. Tell me if you've heard it before:
Character A saves Character B.
After 20 seconds, Character A turns on Character B. It's downright infuriating. You can't help but wander what was the point in saving Character B in the firstplace? That in itself wouldn't even be all too bad, if only there was a director on board who knew how to handle the script. John Moore does not know how to handle the script.
The film stops and starts after every little event making it feel like you're on a malfunctioning rollercoaster. It's almost as if as soon as a new element has to be added to the plot, they try and side-step everything else they've established instead of incorporating it into the main arc of the story. It's stupid, amateur and nauseating and goes to show how much effort went into the flow and fluidity of editing the piece together (either that or they just shot the movie really badly).
Don't make any mistake about it, Max Payne is a really bad movie.
So why did I like it? Why did I walk out of the theatre smiling? I love Mark Wahlberg as much as the next guy, but still, was that enough to savour the experience? The action was short, the plot was skittish and the execution was horrendous but I still came out happy.
I think in the end it comes down to one important thing. Can you overlook problems in plot, flow and execution and just enjoy the beautiful art design and the spectacular orange muzzle flashes that litter the screen in the final shoot outs in a film?
If you can get past the problems and enjoy Max Payne as the flawed anti-drug advert that it is you might come out with a smile on your face to. If you want a film that makes sense, however, you might want to skip this one.
And the whole Video-game movie genre as a whole, actually.
B[o]ut