Is the Max Payne Movie Worth Seeing? - a Review

Max Payne is the newest film from director John Moore starring Mark Wahlberg and Beau Bridges. Based on the popular video game of the same name, Max Payne is a dark and gritty journey into and underworld of crime and no remorse.

So what is Max Payne at its core? Wahlberg plays Payne, a cold case detective with few friends and fewer emotions other than anger over the murder of his wife and baby daughter. Caught in the dangerous web surrounding the crime, Payne tries to unravel the events that led up to the most tragic event of his life. Eventually this leads him to Mona, played by Mila Kunis of Family Guy fame, whom shares tragedy and revenge in her life. Through a series of interrogations and coerced persuasion, Payne concludes that his wife got in the middle of a cover up taking place at the drug research and testing company she had worked for. In knowing too much and getting in the way of a military secret, she was disposed of and left Payne to seek redemption.

So what's good about the movie? The grey, snowy atmosphere is a nice touch to such a dark story, and the action is fantastic at moments, but overall there isn't much here to hang your hat on. While the two gun fights near the end of the film are visually interesting and filled with adrenaline, by that time the 99 minute runtime has felt to be twice that, and comes off as a bit too little too late. Wahlberg plays a broken cop well, but doesn't have much to work with script wise, as one can infer plenty of the story was lost in translation from the video game to the silver screen.

What is not so good about the movie? Mila Kunis is hardly used at all and serves as a fairly meaningless plot point seeing as if she had not even existed nothing in the story would have changed. The film takes a strange turn showing hallucinations of those using the aforementioned drug, and while at times the computer graphics are inspired, overall it feels too much like a video game you aren't playing, instead of a movie you want to watch. The first half of the movie is exceptionally slow, which is just fine if characters are being established, however director John Moore seems more intent on portraying Max Payne's solace more than he is furthering the story. After an hour of seeing no development it is difficult to remain focus on the journey the filmmakers are attempting to take you on.

Overall, if you are a Mark Wahlberg fan or a huge fan of the video game, there might be something here for you to enjoy, but in a sense one can expect taking the long route to a short payoff. Visually stunning at times, it is much like witnessing a shiny object, but once the smoke clears from the mirrors, it is realized that Max Payne is nothing more that an old rollercoaster with not all its parts moving in unison.