Review: Max Payne
by Daniel Khoo

"Oh my, here it comes!" I thought to myself as I grabbed a few popcorns out of the bucket that was on my lap. Every single character on the big screen slowed down to a near halt as we saw bullets after bullets being released from their chambers - each flying wildly into the air, while some end up hitting stray targets. The entire cinema remained in a single silence as the scene was being played out.

No, there wasn't a lag in the timeframe. It was Max entering 'bullet time', a concept that originally burst onto the PC games world while riding on the success of the Max Payne series. We had never seen anything like it before and its introduction took many of us by storm. We were totally in love with it.

If you did not already know, Max Payne is a computer game character brought to life on the silver screen. Mark Wahlberg stars as the main hero of the show, a detective who decides to seek out the people responsible for brutally killing his wife, baby and his partner - although there remains some doubt as to whether he fitted perfectly into the role.

His misadventure saw him teaming up with Mona Sax (Mila Kunis, from Forgetting Sarah Marshall), who was also out for blood after hearing about her sister being murdered. Death by chopping her up into pieces? Simply a work of a madman!

Hell, even Ludacris (yes, the rapper) gets a role as Jim Bravura, an internal affairs agent. Not too solid performance from him, in my opinion.

Prior to the show, I had read some comments about how Wahlberg's acting was similar with that of a stoner. But here's my thoughts: He did pretty well in portraying Max Payne. I didn't expect someone of a chirpy or talkative persona such as Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man) or whatsoever. His dark and enigmatic presence does make him a force to be dealt with.

The point is that Max Payne just had his family and his partner killed before his very eyes - which obviously meant that his world was totally upside down. It makes sense if he was all serious, frowning or for that matter, stoning.

The setting of the movie was pretty good as well, with producers choosing the color contrast very carefully to match the gloomy-like scenario of the game. If it isn't raining, it is snowing! Everything looks very depressing and dull, which kinda reminded me of the show Seven Sins.

There are some minor plot twist during the show, with betrayals and so forth. If you wondered why there was an angel with wings on the poster, I'd say there is a pretty good explaination for it.

A great deal of the show was film with an incorrect focus on the camera lens, which meant that the audience would regularly see blurred vision on the screen. Some people may think of as an error on the producers side, but I reckon that it was purposely meant to be done that way.

Well, the producers were trying to maintain the comic-like feel of the original game, where everything looks a little blurry and shady. I can't say that they've done a bad job at all. Now, the only problem I had was that there weren't enough gunfights! It would be great if they were to do something like the Matrix's lobby scene, but improvise on that. Sadly, there wasn't even a satisfying amount of 'bullet time' moves to go around. As a Max Payne fan, I am somewhat disappointed.

The first half of the show didn't had much action in it as the time was spent unveiling the story line - alot of detective work was done. So if you're not the type that can stand long talks and dramatic investigations, don't bother with this show. Ending wasn't really satisfying at all - it felt as though everything was just rushed through.

I was only there because I was a fan of the game. Nothing more.

Daniel Khoo is a guest writer for UM-Post. We're grateful to him for his contributions.