EcEu
TMF Master
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Now first off, if you haven't seen the film yet, don't read this thread
This 'review' may seem rambling and high on entropy, but that's just because i really want to get these ideas down before i forget them and while my lunch is still hot.
I think i may have just watched the best game to movie adaptation in the world. Why was it so successful? it's because the story for the game is a thing of beauty.
A grizzled fugitive cop, family murdered by unknown perps, Max Payne spends his life trying to find answers to their murder.
If you have played both games, you'll find that the film follows the story and formula of the first game but has the look and feel of the second.
When Remedy was producing the first game, most of the budget went to the amazing voice actors, to give the characters a look they used people who were on the staff to depict them.
The story focuses completely on the first game so when I reference the game I'm referring to the first one, not the sequel Max Payne 2: The fall of Max Payne.
For the second game they kept the voice actors but also invested money on actors to give their characters the desired look they originally wanted. Max was no longer a Hawaiian shirt and jacket wearing grown up look-alike of Feris Beuller, but he was now a very matured and intimidating man.
The choice of Mark Wahlberg was an excellent choice to depict Max because he does have that clean but still very disturbed look that was apparent in Max in the second game.
<img src="http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i77/Eclectic-Euphoria/4Web/max_payne.jpg"></img>
Mila Kunis is HOT no doubt, but many were afraid her girl-next-door uber cutie reputation would ruin her role in the film. Mila did a great job depicting Mona Sax. Although in some scenes she looked like you would just want to cuddle her and her sweetly petite figure, when it comes to shooting an MP5 while an elevator door is closing, she got the attitude of Mona down perfectly.
<img src="http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i77/Eclectic-Euphoria/4Web/monasax.jpg"></img>
One little problem I had was with the connection with Mona and her twin sister in the game, Lisa. Mona and Lisa were identical twins in the game but for the film, they are sisters but they are not twins, frankly there's no one who looks like Mila in show buisness. They also changed Lisa's name to Natasha, and both sisters in the film are depicted as Russian and speak it(no problem for either)
The biggest gripe I had was with who they chose to represent the pain in the ass of Max Payne, deputy Jim Bravura. In the game you only caught a glimpse of him at the end and heard his voice through calls throughout the game, in the second game they gave him a face, a old moustached white man with a chip on his shoulder. for his part they chose rapper Ludicrous... that was ludicrous.
<img src="http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i77/Eclectic-Euphoria/4Web/post-5-1123233670.jpg"></img>
The part of Jack Lupino, major Valkyr junkie and murderer was played by Amaury Nolasco who is popular for his role as the token Latino in Too Fast Too Furious and Sucre in the show Prison Break. His depiction of a hallucinating murderer was way better then the game's depiction of Lupino which didn't feel all that creepy.
<img src="http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i77/Eclectic-Euphoria/4Web/lupino.jpg"></img>
Those who played the first game know that much of the leads Max got came from beating up low mafioso Vinnie Gognitti. If they followed the entire game series of exactly, we would have a 4 hour movie. The mafia was let out of the plot for the movie, no Finito brothers, no Don Punchinello or shootouts with the other mob bosses. Gognitti did make a slight cameo in the name for the Self Storage where Max kept his home files after he moved out of his home following the murder.
The other parts that were left out were not only the entire hotel saga with the mafia but also the shoot out in the depths of the Aesir Corporation labs, the shootout in the docs to meet the absent Vladimir Lem who plays the main antagonist in the second game. Also left out is Max's nightmares, they are instead replaced by recollections of the day his wife and child were murdered.
There were no soldier shootouts from Horne's private army. And Speaking of Horne, she doesn't even get killed in the end.
They started and ended the film in the same formula the game does. It starts off in the present, Max jumping into the frozen river of the city, then it goes back one week to show him in his office, the 'Dead Case' room mulling around looking for answers. It ends on the roof of the Aesir Building with Max taking revenge on B.B. his once friend but also the man responsible for the murder of his wife. this was a shock because in the game the murder of Max's wife and child were instigated by Nicole Horne who sent Valkyr test subjects to his house.
The use of symbolism in the film was amazing. The movie is overall very realistic, the depiction of the Valkeries was used as a way to show the hallucination of what is happening to the person who took the drug.
The first example we're treated to that uses this symbolism is when a valkyred up druggie is running away from Max on the subway tracks, he falls down and starts panicing as shadows of winged demon angels are passing around him until he finally gets killed by the oncoming train.
What i think kept this movie PG-13 were the absence of the mafia and the way Valkyr is taken by users. In the game, Valkyr is shown as a green luminescent fluid that is injected by a needle. In the movie it is a blue liquid that is drunk rather than injected.
Max does get Valkyr in his system but it's not put in his drink by Lisa like in the game, nor is it injected in him by Horne in the end of Part 2. He instead takes the Valkyr himself to avoid freezing to death after nearly escaping from getting killed by B.B. who is still depicted as a Backstabbing Bastard.
The action sequences were amazing. Mark Wahlburg did a great job showing the straight look of concentration that is on Max in the second game while he's shooting.
There isn't much monologuing by Max in the film, everything he thinks to himself is said in the beginning of the film and the end.
John Moore did an amazing job bringing Max Payne to the big screen in style. I think the movie can be easily enjoyed by games and non gamers alike. The story is solid, the action is kept to a perfect balance, and the choice of actors was superb.
Best movie I have seen this year so far.
now to end, let's finish with the max payne theme:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xp6BMs8OBg0
This 'review' may seem rambling and high on entropy, but that's just because i really want to get these ideas down before i forget them and while my lunch is still hot.
I think i may have just watched the best game to movie adaptation in the world. Why was it so successful? it's because the story for the game is a thing of beauty.
A grizzled fugitive cop, family murdered by unknown perps, Max Payne spends his life trying to find answers to their murder.
If you have played both games, you'll find that the film follows the story and formula of the first game but has the look and feel of the second.
When Remedy was producing the first game, most of the budget went to the amazing voice actors, to give the characters a look they used people who were on the staff to depict them.
The story focuses completely on the first game so when I reference the game I'm referring to the first one, not the sequel Max Payne 2: The fall of Max Payne.
For the second game they kept the voice actors but also invested money on actors to give their characters the desired look they originally wanted. Max was no longer a Hawaiian shirt and jacket wearing grown up look-alike of Feris Beuller, but he was now a very matured and intimidating man.
The choice of Mark Wahlberg was an excellent choice to depict Max because he does have that clean but still very disturbed look that was apparent in Max in the second game.
<img src="http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i77/Eclectic-Euphoria/4Web/max_payne.jpg"></img>
Mila Kunis is HOT no doubt, but many were afraid her girl-next-door uber cutie reputation would ruin her role in the film. Mila did a great job depicting Mona Sax. Although in some scenes she looked like you would just want to cuddle her and her sweetly petite figure, when it comes to shooting an MP5 while an elevator door is closing, she got the attitude of Mona down perfectly.
<img src="http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i77/Eclectic-Euphoria/4Web/monasax.jpg"></img>
One little problem I had was with the connection with Mona and her twin sister in the game, Lisa. Mona and Lisa were identical twins in the game but for the film, they are sisters but they are not twins, frankly there's no one who looks like Mila in show buisness. They also changed Lisa's name to Natasha, and both sisters in the film are depicted as Russian and speak it(no problem for either)
The biggest gripe I had was with who they chose to represent the pain in the ass of Max Payne, deputy Jim Bravura. In the game you only caught a glimpse of him at the end and heard his voice through calls throughout the game, in the second game they gave him a face, a old moustached white man with a chip on his shoulder. for his part they chose rapper Ludicrous... that was ludicrous.
<img src="http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i77/Eclectic-Euphoria/4Web/post-5-1123233670.jpg"></img>
The part of Jack Lupino, major Valkyr junkie and murderer was played by Amaury Nolasco who is popular for his role as the token Latino in Too Fast Too Furious and Sucre in the show Prison Break. His depiction of a hallucinating murderer was way better then the game's depiction of Lupino which didn't feel all that creepy.
<img src="http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i77/Eclectic-Euphoria/4Web/lupino.jpg"></img>
Those who played the first game know that much of the leads Max got came from beating up low mafioso Vinnie Gognitti. If they followed the entire game series of exactly, we would have a 4 hour movie. The mafia was let out of the plot for the movie, no Finito brothers, no Don Punchinello or shootouts with the other mob bosses. Gognitti did make a slight cameo in the name for the Self Storage where Max kept his home files after he moved out of his home following the murder.
The other parts that were left out were not only the entire hotel saga with the mafia but also the shoot out in the depths of the Aesir Corporation labs, the shootout in the docs to meet the absent Vladimir Lem who plays the main antagonist in the second game. Also left out is Max's nightmares, they are instead replaced by recollections of the day his wife and child were murdered.
There were no soldier shootouts from Horne's private army. And Speaking of Horne, she doesn't even get killed in the end.
They started and ended the film in the same formula the game does. It starts off in the present, Max jumping into the frozen river of the city, then it goes back one week to show him in his office, the 'Dead Case' room mulling around looking for answers. It ends on the roof of the Aesir Building with Max taking revenge on B.B. his once friend but also the man responsible for the murder of his wife. this was a shock because in the game the murder of Max's wife and child were instigated by Nicole Horne who sent Valkyr test subjects to his house.
The use of symbolism in the film was amazing. The movie is overall very realistic, the depiction of the Valkeries was used as a way to show the hallucination of what is happening to the person who took the drug.
The first example we're treated to that uses this symbolism is when a valkyred up druggie is running away from Max on the subway tracks, he falls down and starts panicing as shadows of winged demon angels are passing around him until he finally gets killed by the oncoming train.
What i think kept this movie PG-13 were the absence of the mafia and the way Valkyr is taken by users. In the game, Valkyr is shown as a green luminescent fluid that is injected by a needle. In the movie it is a blue liquid that is drunk rather than injected.
Max does get Valkyr in his system but it's not put in his drink by Lisa like in the game, nor is it injected in him by Horne in the end of Part 2. He instead takes the Valkyr himself to avoid freezing to death after nearly escaping from getting killed by B.B. who is still depicted as a Backstabbing Bastard.
The action sequences were amazing. Mark Wahlburg did a great job showing the straight look of concentration that is on Max in the second game while he's shooting.
There isn't much monologuing by Max in the film, everything he thinks to himself is said in the beginning of the film and the end.
John Moore did an amazing job bringing Max Payne to the big screen in style. I think the movie can be easily enjoyed by games and non gamers alike. The story is solid, the action is kept to a perfect balance, and the choice of actors was superb.
Best movie I have seen this year so far.
now to end, let's finish with the max payne theme:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xp6BMs8OBg0
