First let me start by saying I am a big fan of the game and I still remember it to this day. With that said, this movie was maybe 25% like the game, I'm probably being generous here. The first hour was a boring predictable detective movie. The character in this movie was not Max Payne in any way except by name. More than half the characters were left out and on top of that the only story they used was the fact that his family was killed and it had something to do with the drug Valkyr. Instead of Max being a cop with "nothing to lose" and on the run like the original story suggests, he is merely a suspect in his partners murder therefore getting rid of the suspense of the whole cop on the run thing. They left out how it was narrated which was pretty much the way this noir story should have been told. Also the cryptic theme song that set the tone of the game was discarded like it meant nothing. They used what one crazy guy in the game claimed he saw while on valkyr as the base for the whole movie, there were no demons/angels or whatever they were in the original story, they felt VERY out of place. Basically they replaced story and substance with cool special effects and a big name actor, obviously in this case not a good trade. You barely get a chance to know Max before it abruptly ends in an unsatisfying way. Mark Wahlberg admitted to not playing the game therefore he had no idea how the character he was playing was supposed to be, way to research the role Marky Mark. On top of getting a mediocre director who obviously had no idea what source material he was really dealing with, this movie was doomed from the start. I really hope this franchise goes the way of the last 2 hulk movies, a terrible one gets made and then someone steps up and makes it the way its supposed to be. So who's going to step up and save Max Payne? If you like and remember the game, DO NOT see this movie, you might be better off watching Bloodrayne again.
Review of Max Payne
