Max Payne Trailer Analysis

July 10th, 2008 by Fullforce | Posted in Article, Films, Gaming, Random |

I’m a huge Max Payne fan. Huge! I’ve played through both games countless times and every year I make sure I play through them both. Both Max Payne and Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne are absolute classics in videogaming, and if you haven’t already played them I strongly, strongly suggest you do. You’re missing out!

So, needless to say, I was sort of excited for the Max Payne film. I say sort of, because Fox’s last videogame effort, Hitman, was mediocre at best, and absolutely horrifically terrible at worse. But still, this is Max Payne! And I waited eagerly for more news. Mark Wahlberg was signed up as Payne, a casting I don’t disagree with - he’s a great actor, and certainly seems to look the part.

From left to right: Mark Wahlberg himself, Max Payne as depicted in Max Payne, and Max Payne as depicted in Max Payne 2.

So, he certainly looks the part, at least from the first game’s perspective. It’d be nice to get Sam Lake (writer of the first game and the model for the first Max Payne) but he’s not exactly a Hollywood A-lister.

To make a videogame movie and expect it to be entirely 100% faithful to the source material is an impossible effort. Which is why when I heard the casting of Chris O’Donnell as Jason Colvin, a character that doesn’t exist in either game, I was not too bothered. Even the casting of Ludacris (a black, young, rapper) as the character of Deputy Chief Jim Bravura (a white, old, groucho, in the games) didn’t rock my world too much - but from what I can see in the trailer, his role is certainly different from the normal Jim Bravura.

The casting of Mila Kunis, however, seems to be a good choice, especially considering one shot in the trailer (more on that later).

From left to right: Mila Kunis, Mona Sax as depicted in Max Payne 2.

So now, onto the trailer itself. The 1 minute 31 seconds of clips that we see are filled with joy, sadness, and downright paranoia about the story and goal of the film. Here it is:

First impressions are good. We see some pretty noir stuff going on, we get some nice shots showing us Payne beating up goons, and it shows us Amaury Nolasco as Jack Lupino, who appears to have a larger role in this film than he does in the first game, where he is your enemy for the first third-or-so of the game, and a boss. He’s a damn good actor, mind, and is brilliant in Prison Break which is one of my favourite TV shows.

The locations also echo the first game, from the Bank job (which is a typically overblown Hollywood style bank job in this trailer) to the final showdown atop the Skyscraper. New York looks just like it does in the games, too, and the constant presence of the snow is a vital touch which really makes it feel Max Payne-y.

Mila Kunis certainly looks the part, especially in this one shot at 1:07:

Which, to fans of the game will look just like the end of Max Payne. However, I have no idea who the girl on the bed is at 1:03, and if it is Mona then there is some timeline screwing going on, as Mona really doesn’t play that much of a part in the first game, but plays a very large part in the second.

But this… is where things go wrong. What are those Angel/Demon things? At first glance, one would pass them off as visions, part of the Valkyr induced comas that Max is forced into repeatedly throughout the first game, forced into nightmares. But within the trailer, it is not just Max that sees the demons. Mona sees them at 0:20, and they are throughout the trailer, chasing some poor bloke and even pulling one guy out of a building at the end.

Coupled with Ludacris’ speech of: “The Devil is building his army. Max Payne is looking for something that God wants to say hidden. That’s what makes him more dangerous.” and BB Hensley (played in the film by Beau Bridges, excellent actor) saying “Remember when you were a kid, and you’d hold your breath when you ran past the graveyard?” this film seems to go horribly wonky.

Of course, everything I’m saying is purely speculation from the trailer - and we all know that trailers can be horribly skewey of the final product - but I don’t like it. These demon things, coupled with shots of Jack Lupino as Ludacris says “The devil”, implying he is the devil, makes me wary of this. Max Payne was never a surreal, supernatural game, and certainly the character was never religious. I fear this film may turn into generic “Demons come up to earth, Payne is the only person badass enough to save us all” which is entirely the wrong direction a Max Payne film should take. It’s a revenge story, not a story about demons. Maybe I’m worried about something that will turn into nothing, but I don’t trust Hollywood these days.

What’s wrong with the original storyline, Hollywood? It has everything that you need - twists, turns, deep characters and solid fightscenes. The film, too, is a PG-13 (equivalent to a ‘12′ in the UK), which apparently only means we’ll lose out on blood, which is not a huge deal. But it makes me worry - if this film is sort of aimed at what Hollywood thinks is the average gamer (as well as the average movie-goer) then Fox have got all their research wrong. The average gamer isn’t a 12 year old anymore - the average gamers are 20-30 year olds now. Max Payne is a mature storyline, a story of revenge and redemption, and an incredibly dark story at that. It deserves an ‘R’ rating - why does a film like Tropic Thunder go for an ‘R’ rating whereas Max Payne goes for the safe PG-13? It’s a real shame.

However, I look forward to seeing more trailers, and to seeing the final version of the film. I don’t expect it to be the game, I just hope it is a worthy successor to the throne of Max Payne, and that it is a darn sight better than the tripe-filled Hitman.