Sorry it took me this long to put the review on here, but I've been pretty busy. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this review!
Let me first start off with this, Max Payne is one of the first video game based movies that isn’t complete trash! I would like to say, however, that I have not played Max Payne, and I cannot really compare the movie to the game.
The plot in a nutshell is this: Three years after the death of his wife Michelle (Marianthi Evans) and baby boy (there were three people involved with the murder, but one got away), Max Payne (Mark Wahlberg) must find the last man who had killed his family. He spends his time looking at old case files trying to find any clue to who it might be. After doing some research, he meets a woman with a tattoo of a wing on her arm. He takes her to his place trying to find out if she has any information. The next day, Max finds out that she has murdered. Max’s old partner, Alex Balder (Donal Logue) finds that the tattoo on her arm resembles that of a tattoo on one of the men who killed Max’s wife. After Alex dies, Max goes to find out who is involved with the murders. Mona Sax (played by Mila Kunis), is also a victim of the clan’s murders and joins Max in order to stop them. Later in the movie, you find out that the reason of these murders is to keep the public quiet of the drug “Valkyr” which is a drug that gives those who take it a sense of invincibility and makes them almost unstoppable. However, its side affect is that it can cause the victim to hallucinate (which the hallucinations are in the form of demons). I’ll stop with the plot there because I don’t want to give away the surprise.
The one thing I would like to give credit to is the fact that the director didn’t make the same mistake that most action movies take, which is the “leave your brain at the door” take. What I mean by this is that most action movies lack plot and just have a lot of fake action scenes because it’s a cheap thrill. Max Payne, however, had a pretty good plot with twists and some pretty good action scenes. In fact, most of the movie was Max Payne trying to put the case together. There were only about three action scenes in the whole movie.
As the people who have played the game already know, slow-motion (or bullet time) action is what is a big part of Max Payne. I was actually surprised to see that there wasn’t a lot of bullet time in the movie. I guess I’m kind of happy about this because it probably would have seemed to be a rip off of the Matrix if they did have a lot of slow-motion action. Some of the action scenes were pretty cheesy though. For example, in one scene of the movie, Max is in a building full of SWAT troops who open fire at him. They are armed with machine guns, and Max is armed with only a pistol. Some notable things were that he never had to reload, he hit about 3 of them, and they only scared his left arm with a bullet. I was expected some cheesy parts mostly because it was an action movie.
As I digress, I think that Max Payne was worth watching. However, it can be hard to follow at times and isn’t for the light of heart. If you’ve played the game or you enjoy the occasional action film, then I would think that you would probably like Max Payne. If you’re not sure about the movie, you can see it when it comes to the dollar theater or when it comes out on DVD. All in all, visually it’s amazing and the story is pretty good. If they could do a little bit better with the action, I think the movie would have gotten more reviews that gave it a better score. I give the movie an 8 out of 10.
The plot in a nutshell is this: Three years after the death of his wife Michelle (Marianthi Evans) and baby boy (there were three people involved with the murder, but one got away), Max Payne (Mark Wahlberg) must find the last man who had killed his family. He spends his time looking at old case files trying to find any clue to who it might be. After doing some research, he meets a woman with a tattoo of a wing on her arm. He takes her to his place trying to find out if she has any information. The next day, Max finds out that she has murdered. Max’s old partner, Alex Balder (Donal Logue) finds that the tattoo on her arm resembles that of a tattoo on one of the men who killed Max’s wife. After Alex dies, Max goes to find out who is involved with the murders. Mona Sax (played by Mila Kunis), is also a victim of the clan’s murders and joins Max in order to stop them. Later in the movie, you find out that the reason of these murders is to keep the public quiet of the drug “Valkyr” which is a drug that gives those who take it a sense of invincibility and makes them almost unstoppable. However, its side affect is that it can cause the victim to hallucinate (which the hallucinations are in the form of demons). I’ll stop with the plot there because I don’t want to give away the surprise.
The one thing I would like to give credit to is the fact that the director didn’t make the same mistake that most action movies take, which is the “leave your brain at the door” take. What I mean by this is that most action movies lack plot and just have a lot of fake action scenes because it’s a cheap thrill. Max Payne, however, had a pretty good plot with twists and some pretty good action scenes. In fact, most of the movie was Max Payne trying to put the case together. There were only about three action scenes in the whole movie.
As the people who have played the game already know, slow-motion (or bullet time) action is what is a big part of Max Payne. I was actually surprised to see that there wasn’t a lot of bullet time in the movie. I guess I’m kind of happy about this because it probably would have seemed to be a rip off of the Matrix if they did have a lot of slow-motion action. Some of the action scenes were pretty cheesy though. For example, in one scene of the movie, Max is in a building full of SWAT troops who open fire at him. They are armed with machine guns, and Max is armed with only a pistol. Some notable things were that he never had to reload, he hit about 3 of them, and they only scared his left arm with a bullet. I was expected some cheesy parts mostly because it was an action movie.
As I digress, I think that Max Payne was worth watching. However, it can be hard to follow at times and isn’t for the light of heart. If you’ve played the game or you enjoy the occasional action film, then I would think that you would probably like Max Payne. If you’re not sure about the movie, you can see it when it comes to the dollar theater or when it comes out on DVD. All in all, visually it’s amazing and the story is pretty good. If they could do a little bit better with the action, I think the movie would have gotten more reviews that gave it a better score. I give the movie an 8 out of 10.
Ups: Good story, good acting
Downs: Some cheesy scenes, hard to understand sometimes or not put together very well.
Well, that's all for now,
HANG TIGHT GAMERS!!
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2 Awesome Comments:
I didn't really want to see that movie, but i might as well rent it.
I was really suprised that I liked it. I thought I would hate the movie because it would be a lot of fake action scenes, but it didn't.
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