OK.....it wasn't the best movie ever made but it really wasn't that bad either. People are all judging this based on the fact that it was nothing like the game but in reality it's a descent movie with an interesting story and some fairly good action scenes.
shareSame as with every adaptation, most of the fans didn't like or even understand the seemingly unnecessary changes to the story. For example, giving Max a desk job instead of having him as an undercover DEA agent, or changing Lupino from a crazed believer in the occult to a failed super-soldier experiment. Like, if you want a movie about a detective going after a super soldier, that's awesome. But don't call it Max Payne, because that's not what Max Payne is or should be.
The movie had potential. The games have a good story, fleshed out characters and some dialogue and voice overs that would've been an absolute killer on screen. But the filmmakers opted for a more generic story that simply borrowed the names of the game's characters.
Max Payne is a lousy adaptation. But I agree with you in that it wasn't exactly a bad movie. For one, I loved the visual style. Some scenes were great and at times Mark Walhberg did pretty good. But I think it fell short of people's expectations.
I agree.....some parts of it were completely changed....but at the same time its one of the darkest movies i have ever seen and it DOES do a perfect job on the visual style. It fell short of my expectations as well but i can still enjoy the movie because it is an OK movie by itself. If they had just changed the name of it and NOT claimed it to be based off the video game i believe people would have been more accepting of it
shareTo be honest I don't think it worked particularly well as a film in itself. Perhaps it's the Max Payne fan in me that's so disgusted with the way they did the film being biased but when i try to blank out my love of the games all i see is a dull film that had a fantastic visual style but a poor plot with dull pacing and lousy acting, especially from Mark Wahlberg who i originally thought would be a great Max Payne. The valkries also felt extremely out of place regardless of whether you were familiar with the games or not.
Overall i was so bitterly dissapointed with Max Payne it was unreal, there was so much potential to make a great cop noir action film but they completely blew it.
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If at any point in the future you feel mature enough to watch something with a darker plot/subject matter, I suggest you try Teletubbies.
"Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity." - George Carlin
well for me the movie was definitely not higher than a 6/10 (which is what i gave it) as it's closer to a 5 than it is a 7. Mark Wahlberg is usually solid but the film as a whole is rather bland if you ask me. it's definitely forgettable and nothing i would really go out of my way to see again which means i can't give it higher than a 6/10 since usually anything i give a 7/10 is typically something i could definitely watch again for the most part.
so basically it's current average rating is about right for it in my opinion. (it's definitely not any better than the high 5's or low low 6's MAX for it)
p.s. i was a former big fan of the games but now there not as good for me as they used to be but around the time Max Payne and Max Payne 2 where new (on PC) i thought they where better than average video games. there still decent for me i guess but they don't hold up anywhere near as well over the years as Mafia (2002) (on PC) has which is one of my all time favorite single player games.
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My Vote History ... http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=11026826
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- the main character never once acted like he was supposed to
- no real action until an hour into the movie and even then it was brief and mediocre
- the theme song wasnt used
- the mob aspect wasnt used at all
- as a result of the above many good characters werent used, and the ones they did use were done almost completely wrong
- not rated R
- a big star like marky mark didnt need to be max payne and he pretty much sucked at doing it
other than the name being the same and the VERY BASIC part of the right plot that they used, this couldnt have been more off from being max payne.
thats why this film gets a 1 and is complete and utter garbage. some sort of monetary exchange would have to take place in order for me to watch this again.
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i didn't like it cus it wasn't as violent as the game, i kept waiting for headshots and lots of gore but never got it haha, maybe im just twisted but yea i loved the violence of the game
shareSo you didn't like the movie because it wasn't absolutely awful? Sounds like you want mindless C- action movies with lots of CGI blood. Or rather, the game rather than a movie? "Waiting for headshots and lots of gore"… come on!
If there is one thing I don't want in a movie, it is endless shooting on faceless opponents. In a game, you do all the aiming, hiding and tactical planning, which makes it engaging. But how fun it to WATCH? Just passively watching someone shooting grunts, that is not fun. The movie has just enough of that, and actually quite a bit.
A movie should tell a story. This one does. Not the best, I could see through the plot too early, but it is OK as a B movie plot. The storytelling would be pretty good (well cut, doesn't skip over things in favor of mindless action like the later Bond movies do) if it wasn't for several predictable and cheap turns. Acting varies between stiff and acceptable.
I find the hero to be portrayed pretty in an interesting way. He gets the same strength that the drug gives from his own pain. Logical, and I see that as a main point with the story. This made me disappointed with him taking it himself. He shouldn't need it. This was, of course, to get the hallucination scenes, but… he had some even before.
Absolutely not a bottom rating movie. Rather in the middle. 5 or 6, I would say.
You answered your own question.
I didn't hate it, but it made me ask the question "why bother basing it on the game if you're making up your own story and characters?"
Max Payne actually had one of the more interesting story lines of any video game, and was ripe for direct adaptation to a film. I thought that as soon as I started playing the game. The game was far more intricate and dark. The movie was boring and tame in comparison.
It's amazing how often movie writers think they are better at their craft simpy because movies are more popular. Look at the hack job they did on 'The Lost World'. The book was far more interesting than the movie rip off of 'King Kong'.
That's why.
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"why bother basing it on the game if you're making up your own story and characters?"
Yep, I think they did a pretty good job on the visual aspects, the "look and feel" of the game if you will. But they seriously butchered the story lines.
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you ask why bother basing it on a video game?, the studio would've ordered it that way.
shareWhat actually hurts the most is that Fox, and I had no idea how good they were at damaging films got their hands on this and gave it to John Moore. It's not complete garbage it's just slow, shallow and the acting in places is attrocious.
It could have been given to a good team, but the unfortunate stigma is it's based on a video game which means it is politically damaging to undertake.
The great irony here is that this one had more potential than any other to be something. The cursed pg-13 rating the is starting to really piss me off. How to make an adult film watchable by a broad audience range and therefor make more money. It's all about the benjamins, and the result is butchery.
I'll give it a 7 out of 10 for visuals, tone and feel.
I hate this film very VERY much, because it insults the perfection of what is "Max Payne" THE videogame. It has no soul, is dumb and makes me snarl every time I hear it being mentioned.
shareAs others have already said, this movie is a terrible adaption. But ignoring that, the movie isn't even decent in itself. Other than some nice visual, what else did it have?
- a bad guy with so much paranoia that he was almost always around max. Who was honestly surprised by that "twist"
- Ludacris as a high ranking police officer
- moments of terrible acting. Especially the haitian guy. He seemed like a guy that didn't know why he was in the movie and like he kept forgetting his lines.
- mona sax was supposed to be the mature older sister, but it seemed like it was the other way around. Mila was more like an angry and rebellious teenager
- overuse of CGI. I'm not against CGI or anything. I often enjoy watching beautiful CGI scenes. However they need to have a basic rule. Only use CGI when it adds something to the story. You could cut away almost 50% of all the scenes with the demons and they wouldn't have changed a single thing about the movie. They were just so proud of them that they wanted them to appear everywhere.
... and i could continue. And add to all this that it is based off of two great games, makes it even worse
"Without passion you are already dead"
I consider this a good movie - just not a Max Payne movie. I have to admit that at first I was disappointed with the storyline and all the diversity with the original game plot but now that I think about it's better just to forget the game and think this as a separate action movie.
I bet if everyone just forgot about the game and got on with the movie, it seemed much better. But it is what it is. Just saying that if you're interested in watching this one, don't rely on the ratings.