It’s no secret that videogame to movie adaptations are rarely any good. As an avid gamer myself, it’s almost painful to helplessly look on as Hollywood continually manages to strip out everything that made the game fun and produce a movie that is best suited to a bargain bin at a petrol station. Considering that novels and comics have been successfully adapted for years, it’s about time that Hollywood gave videogames the care and attention they deserve.
Yet one would have thought that Max Payne, a game which is heavily influenced by the film medium, would almost adapt itself to the big screen. The 2001 game took the best elements of the film noir genre and blended it with visual excitement of films like The Matrix to make for a fantastic gaming experience. When the film was first announced, gamers everywhere grew excited by the possibility that this could very well be the first game to film adaptation to finally break the curse. It could be the first film to finally represent the gaming industry fairly to the masses, cementing the fact that games are in fact the most exciting and diverse storytelling medium of the 21st century.
It could be, but it’s not. Not by a long shot. After his beloved wife and child are tragically murdered in a house robbery, detective Max Payne (Mark Wahlberg) becomes a man with nothing to lose. Transferring himself to cold case, Max dedicates his time to following what little leads there are in his family’s murder case in a hope of finding the person responsible. Three years later, Max’s former partner Alex (Donal Logue) notices a link between a recent homicide and the murder of Max’s family. The murder victim’s sister, an assassin by the name of Mona Sax (Mila Kunis), looks to revenge her sister death and believes Max Payne to be responsible. The police also have Max as their prime suspect, and want to bring him in for questioning. However, Max is more interested in finding the murderer of his wife and child than he is in clearing his name, and with the guidance and support of long-time cop and mentor B.B. Hensely (Beau Bridges), he initiates a cat and mouse chase where he must uncover the truth and get his revenge before it’s too late.
The first thing Hollywood seem to do to a game adaptation is completely rework the narrative for the big screen. Sometimes this is necessary; Hitman, which was released into cinemas earlier this year, would have been an even greater bomb had it not been given a narrative reworking as the game simply asked the player to complete a series of unrelated assassinations. However, the game Max Payne already was blessed with a rich and engaging narrative in-between the multitude of slow motion gunfights, teeming with profound characters and unforseen twists. Yet screenwriter Beau Thorne must have decided it still wasn’t good enough, and despite keeping the core narrative the same, has rewritten many key sequences for the movie. As a result, the narrative regularly suffers from being illogical, disjointed and underdeveloped.
Aside from setting nearly every scene in the pouring rain to reinforce the genre cliché, the reworked script scarcely features key characters from the game, such as assassin Mona Sax and the CEO of the pharmaceutical company Aeiser Nicole Horn. Both of these characters are integral to the story of the game, yet here they feel as though they were haphazardly slapped into the film simply for continuity reasons. A completely unnecessary supernatural element has also been introduced in the film, which is frustratingly misleading to the audience and works only to mask the true story of inconsolable loss and unyielding revenge that made the game’s narrative and the title anti-hero so gripping.
Another integral element to the game was the profound voiceover provided by Max Payne which unveiled nearly all of his inner daemons to the gamer. The importance of this voice over, however passé the concept maybe in noir films, is that it gives a much needed development to Max’s character. Without it, Max would have come across as an emotionless plank of wood. In the film, this is exactly the case. The Happening took more from Mark Wahlberg than his credibility, as he portrays an incredibly dull and unengaging character in Max. That being said, I don’t actually blame Wahlberg. His portrayal of Max is more suited than most care to realise. He is meant to be completely miserable and hard-hearted; he has lost the only two joys of his life after all. Yet without the constant aid of the all revealing voice-over, it’s hard to feel sympathetic for Max’s plight. Whilst the film tries to use monologues from supporting characters to shed light on Max’s deep emotions, it’s nowhere near as poetic or impacting as it is when coming from Max’s gruff, monotone voice. Maybe the writers removed it as they were scared the film would then be labelled as a blatant Sin City rip off… something which actually doesn’t sound too bad if you ask me.
Criticisms aside, the film isn’t a complete disappointment. Of all the videogames to make it onto celluloid, Max Payne actually rates quite highly. Admittedly this owes much to the competition being as enjoyable as jabbing your eye with a fork, but it also has to do with director John Moore and cinematographer Jonathan Sela’s distinctive visual style. Sela uses a multitude of extreme angles, especially in the many alleyway scenes, to highlight the ominous and claustrophobic cityscape that confines the anti-hero. Shot mostly at night, the film is aptly lit in true film noir style. A majority of the scenes in Max Payne are quite competently staged and shot, highlighting some of the exciting action that made the games a joy to play. One fight scene draws straight from comic book conventions by using flashes of red to indicate critical hits, a concept gamers would indefinitely be familiar with.
Ultimately though, these few redeeming moments are lost within a film that never comes close to captivating its audience like the game did before it.
Verdict:
Aside from some well shot sequences, everything else that made videogame an engaging and enjoyable ride is almost entirely lost in translation when taking to the big screen. Without the voice-over to help develop the personality of Max, it’s difficult to be sympathetic towards his despondent character. As a result, the film is quite a joyless experience that those not familiar with the game will probably find a real ‘Payne’ to sit through (Sorry… but I’ve restrained myself from using that all review).
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