When Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler pioneered the ethos of the misunderstood anti-hero in their 1930’s and ’40s hardboilled detective novels, one has to doubt that they had the revenge-centric, seemingly overdone “Max Payne” in mind. The upcoming video game adaptation starring Mark Wahlberg, “Max Payne,” is being marketed as a dark, noiry, badass thriller with a misunderstood anti-hero who is fighting to avenge the murder of his family. Promotional pictures and a trailer have been released for the film and it looks like a cheap attempt to imitate the austere aesthetics of the neo-noir computer generated “badass” feel (see: “Sin City”, “300”) a little to much, not to mention the obvious parallels with the ultra chessy “Punisher.” [ed. it’s caleld a blatant premise rip-off].
The comic-book adaptation obviously is a genre that has shown success in modern day flicks like “Sin City” and “Batman Begins,” but we have our doubts about the chances of this particular adaptation, as films transposed from that medium struggle with common traits: windingly silly “Matrix” bullets (or maybe now “Wanted” bullets), illogical action sequences, leaden acting, impossibly laughable twists, suspension of disbelief and this little thing called plot.
“Payne” doesn’t seem to have the juice to break these trend either, as it is looks like just another story redone of a angry dad on a tear, blowing shit up, and hell bent on avenging this or that. Try anger management or aversion therapy for a change. Now if this was a Park Slope dad, mowing down soccer mom strollers in modern day Brooklyn, we might have an interesting twist on the whole silly, “you killed my family, you’re going to pay in blood, my name is
Inigo Montoya” genre.
Trailer: “Max Payne”
