So I went to go see Max Payne this weekend. On opening night at that, something I haven't done since a Lord Of The Rings or Star Wars movie, although it wasn't really by design-just a free night and finding someone willing to actually go with me what with the terrible reviews and all. Although I will admit I was fairly excited to see it, what with being a huge fan of the games and all. I absolutely loved both of the games, and outside of Half-Life, Half-Life 2, and arguably No One Lives Forever they were my favorite first person shooter (guess it was actually third person, but hey, it's a shooter). Great games, complete with a good story line (strangely enough, I remember there were rumors of a movie with the first one) and good game play. But the games aren't the point of this, the movie is.
The cinematography was amazing. Done in a very film noir style, the lighting, sets, and constant falling snow gave the movie a great vibe. It was actually quite loyal to the style of the game, and it gave the movie a great starting base. The problem is, I'm starting off this review by talking about the cinematography...and that's not a good sign.
I will be upfront, I'd give the movie a C, maybe a C+. And that's coming from someone that knew and loved the story going in, and really enjoyed the game. Much like Hitman (which I really did enjoy) I really, really wanted to love this movie. And while I'm not totally sold on Mark Wahlberg, or even Ludacris, I do find Olga Kurylenko to be amazingly hot (sadly, no nudes like in Hitman, and I feel like a teenager asking for boobies). The problem is this, the movie didn't know what it wanted to be. The first 20m or so were extremely slow, and throughout the rest of it they would introduce ancillary storylines that weren't at all crucial. Then on top of that, the tried to shove in the storyline from Max Payne 2 on top of the original, and the result was this garbled mess of strange tangents that weren't advancing the plot combined with unexplained parts of the story that, well, really kind of needed to be explained.
When the movie is over and you look over the storyline presented you see holes, but not glaring ones....it's a complete story. It's just that while you're watching it you feel as thought it's garbled and could have been done so much better. You see a few good action scenes, but also some really completely unbelievable ones. And in the end, it just felt incomplete. I think that's my best description, it seemed like a long and yet incomplete movie without any real drive or purpose.
The cinematography was amazing. Done in a very film noir style, the lighting, sets, and constant falling snow gave the movie a great vibe. It was actually quite loyal to the style of the game, and it gave the movie a great starting base. The problem is, I'm starting off this review by talking about the cinematography...and that's not a good sign.
I will be upfront, I'd give the movie a C, maybe a C+. And that's coming from someone that knew and loved the story going in, and really enjoyed the game. Much like Hitman (which I really did enjoy) I really, really wanted to love this movie. And while I'm not totally sold on Mark Wahlberg, or even Ludacris, I do find Olga Kurylenko to be amazingly hot (sadly, no nudes like in Hitman, and I feel like a teenager asking for boobies). The problem is this, the movie didn't know what it wanted to be. The first 20m or so were extremely slow, and throughout the rest of it they would introduce ancillary storylines that weren't at all crucial. Then on top of that, the tried to shove in the storyline from Max Payne 2 on top of the original, and the result was this garbled mess of strange tangents that weren't advancing the plot combined with unexplained parts of the story that, well, really kind of needed to be explained.
When the movie is over and you look over the storyline presented you see holes, but not glaring ones....it's a complete story. It's just that while you're watching it you feel as thought it's garbled and could have been done so much better. You see a few good action scenes, but also some really completely unbelievable ones. And in the end, it just felt incomplete. I think that's my best description, it seemed like a long and yet incomplete movie without any real drive or purpose.
1 comment:
Very fine......
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