It already looks better than the film. |
The series, which had two games at the time (one released in 2001, one in 2003), was adapted into a film released to theaters in october 2008, starring Mark Wahlberg in the titular role. Now, as we’ve discovered over time, there are two ways to adapt a game into a film: Try to follow it as closely as possible… or don’t, and pull whatever crap you feel like doing, even if none of it makes sense. Why, yes, I am still bitter about the live-action Super Mario Bros., and that abomination (I refuse to call it a movie) came out 27 years ago.
I've done some research on the franchise for this review, of course, but it wouldn't measure up to the knowledge of someone who has actually played the games. I'm not going in entirely blind, but still mostly as someone with no experience with the series. I'm of the belief that a movie adaptation of a work in another medium needs to be interesting even for the viewers who aren't familiar with the source material. This is going to be my angle for this review.
Let’s take a look, shall we?
Max Payne is a tormented NYPD officer working at the cold cases department. He is desperate to find more clues regarding the murderer of his wife Michelle and their baby, three years ago. His only lead is that the junkie who broke into their home, the man responsible for the act, was high on a dose of Valkyr, a drug that’s been making the rounds, usually sold in vials and taken orally.
He obviously can't bring himself to care. ..Wahlberg, I mean, not Payne. |
"You're out of luck, buddy; there's no good cop here." |
The detective invites himself at a party held by his informant, hoping to get new leads to follow. That guy says he’s gone straight, but there’s a high number of dodgy-looking people in here. Including this woman in a red dress, which Max instantly notices.
Gee, I wonder which of these characters has plot relevance. |
But, to be fair, if you were the first splash of color in a grey, grey movie, you’d be noticed too – this film isn’t subtle with its color cues. This is Natasha Sax, a Russian spy portrayed by Olga Kurylenko. She’s better known for playing Camille Montes, the Bond girl of the James Bond movie Quantum of Solace, which came out in theaters merely two weeks after Max Payne. Take a guess which role she remembers more fondly between those two. After she approaches Max, he notices the wing tattoo on her wrist. He also gets to meet Natasha’s sister Mona, a Russian assassin portrayed by Mila Kunis, who tries to take her sister away from the party.
"...Yes? Can I help you, mister blatantly-villainous guy?" |
They wind up at Max’s apartment, where Natasha tries her best to turn on the detective (and the audience as well), but the cop is so tormented that he doesn’t reciprocate her interest whatsoever. She gets on the bed, even attempts to entice him into roleplay. “You can call me by her name~” Oh, that was a mistake, Natasha. If his libido wasn’t already dying, it’s just been fatally shot. Max instantly tells her to get out.
"I feel like I'm gonna die, but it's still better than that time I did bath salts." |
Those tattoos keep turning up in the worst places. |
It's raining during this exchange. Symbolism? |
Meanwhile, Mona Sax gets the news about her sister Natasha’s murder. She also gets two pieces of information: One is a list of the last calls Natasha made before her death, with the last person, called twice, being a man named Owen Green; and a photocopy of Max Payne’s driver’s license.
Not even landing in the hospital will make Max Payne stop. Even if he could use some damn rest. |
So Michelle worked in pharmaceutics and died in a case that involved drugs. Coincidence? |
Now properly dressed, Max and B.B. head to the wake held for Alex. Our protagonist feels less than welcome; he is, after all, the prime suspect in his death. To think, if he had actually talked to his friend, that might not have happened. Honestly, if Max just freaking talked to people, sorted through his issues, a lot of problems would have been solved already. As Max leaves the wake, a car pulls up. Out comes the NYPD Internal Affairs Lieutenant Jim Bravura, portrayed by…
…Ludacris??? You again? I haven’t seen you since…
Scene from: Gamer (2009) |
Well, Ludacris looks like a better cop than all the cops we've seen in this movie so far. |
Seriously, if you want a movie where Mark Wahlberg offers a godawful performance, watch Max Payne. You can count on your hands the number of times he doesn’t just look angry. Yeah, he has to play a guy who’s constantly tortured by inner pain, trying to solve a mystery that seems without an answer. But if there are any layers to his acting, we don’t see it, don’t hear it. Whatever he tries to do, he fails. It's not even memetically bad, to the extent of his "Whaaaaat? Noooo!" from M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening!
Back at the NYPD, Jim Bravura grills Max on the situation, but once again, the cold cases detective is a Payne in the ass. …Alright, I can cross that one off the list of mandatory jokes. After he leaves, Max stops by the homicides department, and he’s not welcome there either. But before his ex-colleagues can do anything, he locks himself into Alex’s office and rummages through the files. He finds what he was looking for just in time (Natasha’s phone records and the break-in crook’s photo) and flees through the window and into the cold winter night.
Professional assassin VS a cop with nothing to lose. Who wins? |
Walking down the streets, Max is attacked by Mona Sax, but he manages to convince her that he didn’t kill her sister, and that they’re both looking for the same guy – Owen Green. They might as well help each other, right? Load of good that does them – when they find Owen, he’s high on Valkyr and before they can get any answers, he throws himself down the side of the building and dies. So much for leads.
Oh yeah, me too, I'd trust a pharma company that makes a reference to Norse Mythology in its name. Wouldn't you? |
Also of note about the game’s symbolism; the drug is taken orally in the film, but by injection in the games. Throughout the film, you can see a graffiti of a syringe in a V and a circle all over the walls – implying that the movie started with the drugs being injected into a user’s veins, and switched to a drinkable liquid later in development. But they never changed the graffiti.
You'll be seeing this graffiti everywhere. |
From her profession as an assassin, Mona has some connections in the criminal underground, and uses them to gather some information. Some more symbolism, blah blah blah, and then we finally get some relevant information: The leader of this drug ring is named Jack Lupino. Yes, it’s the big tough guy Max saw at the party. His base of activities? A club called Raglan and Brock; the neon sign has a few letters missing, so it spells RAG_N_A_ROCK …Ragnarok? Really? Ah, for fuck’s sake.
What's this? A picture with some color? Did we walk onto the set of a different movie? |
Oh, by the way, while we’re at it… Bless her, she tries, but Mila Kunis fails to sell herself as some sort of professional assassin. It feels very much like bad casting for this role. Oh, Kunis is a talented actress, I won’t deny it, and she went all-out, even learned some skills for the role, but this isn’t working. You know who would have fit the role better? Olga Kurylenko, who played Natasha! Although, if the role was to make her not too noticeable...
Piecing everything together, Max realizes that there might be some information regarding his wife’s murder in her files, kept in the Aesir Pharmaceuticals storage. He goes in… but finds the files empty. Someone knows he’s on to something…
How about we stop here and continue in Part 2?
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