Okay, I'll say that the atmosphere is down pat. I still can't get over the wussy sounding Mark Wahlberg's voice though. I've become so accustomed to the really deep voice of the original Max, listening to Wahlberg's high pitched cracking voice feels like he's just trying to whisper the lines and forcing that deep angry growl which he just isn't capable of doing.

Considering that if they tell the story like the original game, I don't know if I want to sit through 1-2 hours of monologue with a high raspy voice.

EloquentZen

@valouris: Every thread about the Max Payne movie has people coming in talking about how it's now some demon movie. It's not. You are silly. As Antihippy says, Valkyr! Remember!

asphaltdan

@Filthy_O_Bedlam: to be fair though, this is actually very true to how Max Payne was delivered - and that was well before Sin City.

elronathon

@SunKing: Did you even watch this video? The demon only shows up once, and that could still reasonably be a dream sequence or imagination sequence.

I've still got high hopes :D

Kato

Valkyr people.

Remember that.

Antihippy

@SunKing: yeah the whole demon thing is way off the game's point of existence. it was supposed to be about pure anger and revenge, not some save-the-world-from-demons shit

valouris

I'm still not sure. From the trailers it looks like they've completely changed the story into something closer to a supernatural thriller like Constantine. Not only that, they've changed this guy:

[maxed.gry-online.pl]

Into this guy:

[www.imdb.com]

Whuah?

SunKing

Not trying to put i downer on things but.... Its a trailer the sole purpose of a trailer is to make the film look good regardless of whether it is or not, its called marketing.

Your never really gunna know until it hits screens.

Dappa

wow, that actually gave me some chills. the monologue didn't seem as wonderfully descriptive as they tend to be in the games, but still.

spite_nihilo

as i said previously, looks fucking awesome. can't wait.

Creasy

Very cool! Indeed, they're heart is in the right place!

asphaltdan

I think I saw this movie back when it was called Sin City

Filthy_O_Bedlam

I had skeptical hope before... now I'm just hopeful. They might actually pull this off!

Touy

Colour me interested, that commercial has switched me from apathetic to very interested in watching.

Morberis

I am a huge fan of the games, and I think the movie could be decent. This little trailer definitely is on the right path. If the movie is as good as this they it should turn out.

Marky Mark can pull his part off, not big on Luda being in it and I wish it was rated R not PG-13. But my biggest issue is with the director. He just isn't very good at all. Hopefully he can turn it around with this flick.

VonDante

Stylish!

I thought the article title was misspelled "Sceptical" instead of "Skeptical", but according to Google they can be used interchangeably. Guess you learn something new every day.

psychobaka

@asphaltdan: I was gonna say the same thing... Valkyr... It's a drug thing.

bobtheduck

I have a few friends that are interested in this. I finally watched the trailer.

Let's just say it looks derivative and pointless. Not interested.

Bonus-Round

The only thing im skeptical about is Ludacris playing as Jim Bravura...I just dont see the connection with that. Lets hope he doesn't ruin the movie, and bravura's character.

wahrugene

I thought they kinda overdid it with the whole gruff and gritty thing. Seems interesting, but listening to him talk like that the whole time was grating.

Marky Mark got the goofy Max Payne face just right though, I'll say that much.

Benguin

I had to go and find the original opening to game because I thought it was awesome at the time. Still is:

+ Watch video

MJ2k

That looks awesome. Sure the narrative isn't as detailed as in the game, but this is a trailer after all.

bakalhau

In the beginning of the trailer my skepticism was eased by the choice of the format for the prologue - Max Payne Noir Novel style. Then they just couldn't help it with the supernatural stuff ( the winged foe - which completely undermines my thesis if it turns out to be a metaphor or an illusion) that seems to get into everything coming out of Hollywood, effin-up the story and leaving me to think that the world will never change and easily tricked people will still be seeing this movie. Granted that in the Max Payne video games there was always a arcane plot twist which deepened the screenplay leaving things open ended and mind boggling.

With all these negative points halfway through the trailer you notice how unnatural and annoying the vocal performance of Marky Mark is and how the should have increased the grain of the whole sequence...

quadrado

@Bonus-Round: "Let's just say it looks derivative and pointless."

Much like your comment.

beem

Well, they have the right tone. I thought this had the best chance of being a good video game movie. But the fact that they pussed out and went for the PG-13 rating has me worried. A lot of movies have been ruined by that stretch for the teenage audience.

The only reason "The Dark Knight" avoided that fate is because it was so huge a movie, it could basically bully the MPAA into getting the lower rating.

PapaBear434

@EloquentZen: agreed!!
there are some people that can pull it off. But Mark should stick to his girly voice!

quadrado

I feel like some weird acting on the part of Mark Wahlberg will turn this into a giggle fest.

But hey, whatever.

DRaGZ

not sceptical at all, accept for mark wallberg. music in the trailers was awesome.

SPitFyRe666

Hmm.. i had high hopes for the movie before the trailer, still kind of do. Theres something about Mark Walhberg thats bothering me though, and the fact that its a pg-13 movie. I mean im not the type that would say a movie sucks just because it is pg-13 but in my mind a Max Payne movie should be r rated. Hopefully they dont ruin one of my favorite games.

CrimsonShin

@DreamoftheEndless: Wait, I just remembered about the drug Valkyr, so nevermind... I still don't have high hopes because I don't like Wahlberg. Sorry for the almost double post.

DreamoftheEndless

This movie looks terrible. Nothing like the game. He's literally fighting valkyries...it's not some metaphor.

DreamoftheEndless

@DreamoftheEndless: He's literally fighting valkyries is he? No. He's not.
Is it a metaphor? Yes. It is.

asphaltdan

@Filthy_O_Bedlam: This is actually film-noir style. And the Sin City comic book came out in the early 90's so this was before the game.

nocode

Well... it's not looking to be a patch on the game. AGAIN. So yet again, film fails to make game translate well.

sanctusmortis

@Benguin:

Like this?

+ Watch video

KindaGamey

@quadrado: to be honest, if this movie has that much monologue; i'll be turned off. While it worked for the purpose of the game; I don't think it would fit as well in a 2 hour long movie.

Look at other noir films and you'll see that they don't rely too heavily on background monologues (90's noirs at least)

jp182

@nocode: Actually the game makers took photographs and turned them into comic book panels which is closer to the look of Sin City the film than Sin City the comic book.

Of course it's film noir style. Max Payne was very much a noir story and Max Payne 2 was billed as "a film noir love story."

agies

@PapaBear434: Well, it's fairly obvious when watching the Dark Knight that certain bits are censored and brushed off screen quickly, whereas in Batman Begins the violent acts were not censored as much.

One example is the gangster with the knife in his mouth, where the Joker cuts it, but you don't see it as it's brushed away very quickly.

As for Max Payne... I can't wait. But then I am dreading it, also.

Fullforce

I'd have to say that's pretty damn faithful to the game. It's stylistic, over-laden ultra-noir.

I just hope the movie isn't all those pans and inserts like a comic book. That would get nauseating...fast ><

Atomicvege

@Benguin:

I think it's supposed to be a piss-take of film-noir, like the game. If they take this too seriously then it's gonna be hilarious for the wrong reasons. I still can't quite tell if the makers have realised that though.

LeadNinja

Hey, it worked for Sin City. This might work, too.

MrPerson

He sounds like a tragedy survivor speaking in traumatic whispers, rather than the world-weary cynical nihilistic self-despising growl that should suffuse every word Max Payne says.

I suggest recording first thing in the morning, maybe while hung over.

PositivelyGreg

@asphaltdan: I already pointed that in my post... "Is it a metaphor or an illusion?"...

But the way it unravels in the trailer.. it's odd and disturbing, in the sense that reminds me that many films go on the non sequitur path a little too often, with the pretension that they can improve the story by it. Off the top of my mind I can immediately recall the crap fest that the Resident Evil movie has become.

quadrado

@DashTheHand: I do have to say that the overall theme, music, and feel to the movie do hold true and look great though. Even the graphic novel / storyboarded shots look fantastic. Its just Mark Wahlberg that ruins the entire thing.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Johnny Knoxville would have been awesome as Max.

DashTheHand

His voice is god awful compared to the game. He sounds like hes trying to have the rough voice that Max had in the game, but it comes off like hes whispering and trying to seduce someone. Just.....ugh.

DashTheHand

This looks great, very faithful to how the story was laid out. The voice might be kind of annoying but it is no where near as bad as Christian Bale's Batman voice.

Very excited, they finally got comic movies right, maybe it's finally time for a good game movie.

phimuskapsi

well, if they put the nightmare of the baby crying and the floor is a path of blood, i'm sold

Xaro

I think it looks awesome... however as good an actor as he is, Marky Mark's voice just doesn't do the narriation justice.

Gervy

I'm a little sceptical, but even more skeptical.

But seriously, an R-rated cut probably would have been dope.

SLiFE

@Xaro: ...and only if he falls off 50 times and has to start again.

Bergerac

'Still Sceptical About The Whole Max Payne Movie Thing?'

Rather.

The film itself - I mean visual gloss, not 'Max Payne' - doesn't look stylised enough to match the comic visuals like 300 and Sin City did. The backgrounds just look like regular backgrounds, not like a comic come to life. They needed to blur a lot of crap and make it all nice and swirly. The funny thing is, I'm not a comic enthusiast, but if you're going to do something, DO it. As it stands right now, they way its shot - it looks like an independant effort on Youtube. The bedroom scenes look like scenes from Neighbours but with guns added in. It just looks... ORDINARY.

All this stuff with panels in this trailer you can tell is JUST for the sake of the trailer. Reeling people in for a much less accurate film. I have a feeling it'll only go 'wacky' when dream and drug sequences kick in. That and Wahlberg's neck's too fat. LOL

That's without even starting on the toned down violence for a friggin' 'Max Payne' film... !

Bergerac

I'll watch it, but I guess I'm just biased in that I'm probably going to be dispointed.

But maybe it will turn out like the original Resident Evil movie. It didn't really follow the story, but it at least kept the spirit of what made the games good and didn't just half ass it because it was a game to start out with.

Cragen

@phimuskapsi: comic book movie? wat?

belo

100% right, even though folks hated on his Face expression this game still has so must class. The Music to this day is very unique to Max Payne. This Ad is a Improvement but Mark doesn't have the voice... I wish they had Dubbed it seriously...Paynes Voice is so distinctive.

SavitashriMagooin

You know what, I liked it. People here are just nit picking too much.

NightMystic

@Kato: It's possible, but subtlety isn't as commercially appealing as demons with wings pulling people through windows. I'm a cynic so it is entirely plausible that they would ditch subtelty for commercial viability.

SunKing

I'm seeing it opening weekend. I think it'll be that good. In fact, I think it'll be the best video game to movie adaptation to date.

LittleBigPlaneteer

@DashTheHand: Because we'd want a Jackass in the lead role instead of an Oscar caliber actor...

agies

I approve this trailer.

Rubezh

Luke thinks ALL game movies are bad? Am I in the minority in thinking Silent Hill was brilliant? Yes, it was not a direct translation of the game, but the spirit was spot on and the visuals were amazing. The ONLY complaint I had about that one was the scenes with the father, but they added some depth to the precedings in the Mist world.

KaneTaker

I think it will turn decent, I really want to see it

And if the film is good and there is a DVD versión with Marky Mark's voice duubed by the original Max Payne voice, I'll buy it!

Great Merol

It looks good, but the director or w/e is a jackass for pushing for a pg-13 rating. He needs to be punched in the dick for that.

And Mortal Kombat (first one) and Silent Hill weren't completely terrible for VG movies.

Rajolae

@jp182: Even the radio shows like Pat Novak or the quintessential noir movie, Double Indemnity, don't rely on voice overs, but they're still there. It comes with the territory.

spiralout987

Took ya long enough to post this. :)

henhowc

I would have to say that it looks derivative and pointless because Hollywood and other IP's have beaten Max Payne to the film punch.

With movies like (insert what ever you can squeeze out of a graphic novel) and , (anything having to do with Frank Miller) this just seems dated now.

I'm not slamming the Max Payne franchise, it's just showing it's age.

I do like the Payne, but if this is going to be some PG-13 romp around, then it's a waste of time. The game wasn't PG-13 neither should the movie be....

Nubius

No one has confirmed that it's really Valkyries or a metaphor so I wish people would quit assuming. Having seen the game trailer again, I can understand why the didn't go over the top with the narrative, it would sound like a cheep Sam Spade novel. The got the essence of it write (if it stays true to the trailer)everything else is taylored to the folks who don't know the game. Keep that in mind THIS MOVIES HAS TO APPEAL TO PEOPLE WHO DON'T GAME! It's PG-13 so they can make a return on their investment, sorry that bad parents bring their kids to PG-13 movies and not R movies, but such is society, get over it. It's film noir, but not enough to seem hokie and that's fine by me.

mtheumer

i do think that the valkyrs they show are just metaphors for the drug.

juniorlikespie

@EloquentZen: I agree, First thing that came to mind was that his voice almost made it sound like he was whispering the lines instead of using a normal, low pitched voice. But that doesn't necessarily take away from the fact that they're at least trying to be faithful to the games, which is a good sign.

aKed

Trailers do not mean a thing, you can turn anything into a fantastic trailer, but the movie can still suck. I am reluctant to believe this movie is good because it is PG-13 (that is based on an R rated material) and you have ludicrus in the movie. Be very reluctant to believe the hype.

Azriel77

@Touy:
Same here, I was planning on seeing it just to see how it would fair, but overall, this could actually be really good.

X Omega Gold

@mtheumer: Yes but lest we not forget the sequence of the trailer in which he says that he knows the myth from the research on the tattoos in the bodies of junkies that showed up all over the city... What's left of them....It sure points out to supernatural damage ...or not. Let's hope not...

quadrado

@phimuskapsi: @belo: Yes ...What comic book?

And yes every segment in the Dark Knight of prolonged speech from Bale as Batman, was borderline embarrassing... He had to disguise his voice to be Batman but in what relates to the expression it had in picture it stands out as a very ill conceived situation.

quadrado

i don't get the over-focus on the valkyries...in the game, they weren't really that big of a deal. there wasn't a single valkyrie, hallucination or not, in the game...

i fear that they're making this more "video gamey" that it actually is.

stevesan

I'm still on the edge with this. That style's great for trailers and such, but the real test is to see if they can pull off the right feel and mood in the actual movie. See this is OK for a trailer, but if you use this flowing comic style for the whole film it'll get both boring and annoying really fast.
I have confidence that Wahlberg will do a good Max Payne, but I'm not so sure they'll get the story, characters, and motivations right while not making it feel cheesy. And they've got to watch it with that angel of death thing and make sure people realize that it's for dramatic effect only.

Blah8

@Blah8: totally agreed. the valkyries weren't in the game at all, and to focus on them this much is weird.

stevesan

I wish Mark would have smoked a ton before doing the voicing of his char. I always think of Max Payne as a guy who smoked a ton so his voice was scratchy.

Cagny

Now before I say anything, let me precise that I am actually looking forward to this. I think it has the potential of being a fun movie, if nothing else.

But so far, everything I've seen had something off about it.
The video above, I really REALLY like what they're trying to do. But something bothers me and I can't quite put my finger on it. Probable either Marky Mark's acting or the general directing of the video.

Also, what the hell? I had no idea about Ludacris as Jim Bravura and it just seems WRONG to me O_o

It's nice and everything and I want to be excited about it but I just can't. There's this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that I will be once again completely disappointed.

Hmm, I can't trust a video game movie to be good...
Now I wonder whose fault that could be..?
oh right! [www.imdb.com]

Fieldy

I think it might be the actual intro to the movie.

The video was pulled from IGN and its labeled there as:

Max Payne Movie Clip - Max Payne: The Beginning Live-Action Comic:

[movies.ign.com]

henhowc

P.F.S.= Pretty Fu¢kin Sweet.

The presentation is excellent! However, to be critical I think Mark needs to re-work the voice acting part a bit. Voice is a liiitle too sad (which is understandable). The presentation and visuals have a darker tone. His voice needs to match the visual tone.

nerdBOY01

their heart is in the right place

xblacknightxz

@quadrado: As in in general they are finally starting to get comic book movies done correctly (Ironman, Batman), maybe we can hope for a good game movie.

phimuskapsi

Ugh, I just wanna hear the original Max Payne music theme somewhere associated with the movie.... that'd make me feel a little better about it.

Seroth

Okay, that looked awesome, but the fact that they cast Mila Kunis still makes me skeptical

mronoc

It just seems like Silent Hill to me, got the look/atmosphere right and just fucked up spectacularly with the film itself. But I shall wait and see.

TearsandScreams

@quadrado:

You do notice he shot the guy out of the window, the bird guy is just a metaphor of a valkyrie pulling the dead out to vahalla. So in essence the drug Valkyr is taking another life.

Tracid

could be pretty sweet.

joeloliol

@MJ2k: Always thought the game felt like a Fox movie! I was introduced to the 3D GTA games before this, but the start of the game still shocked me. Compared to the trailer, it doesn't have that spooky feel I thought the game intro had.

Mr.Wilson

hopefully it won't be like Medellin! >__>

keji916

I don't know why people keep up on the rating. the MPAA is a lot less strict than the ESRB. I can think of several instances of content in movies or TV shows rated PG-13 or TV-14 that would get a game an M. Taking language out of the picture there wasn't really much in the orignal games that would make it a a hard R anyway.

AldenAlbinus

Can't wait for this one...

The trailer was pretty spot on and I think Mark Wahlberg was the perfect choice for Max Payne.

flyingsupernerds

Badass. Very bad ass indeed.

lazylark

this is looking really good. I'll admit, I haven't played the games, but I'd still want to see this even if it wasn't based on a game (ie, a regular movie).

spicyhamster

The Valkyries are really just drug induced visions. Scott Miller confirmed it and if you read the leaked script (which was leaked a few months ago and lines up with more recent trailers) , that's what's described.

EganHelen

The music reminds of the main theme of jason staham's Death Race. Anyone?

LazarusLedd

Looks better than I thought. It manages to capture atleast some of the feeling of the original Max Payne.

spats

I understand the need to be skeptical in regard to big screen adaptations of video games, but it pisses me off when people are overly critical and jaded.

Of course it's goddamn derivative. It's a good cop gone bad story. PG13 rating bothers me to no end especially since most of the kids who are under seventeen weren't even old enough to have heard of these two games.

We'll see.

sciencepatrol

there's already a Max Payne movie out, it's Payback with Mel Gibson. And it's better than this will be.

SunitiBomb

@Dappa: But if you look at other Game-Movie trailers... They look like retarded shit from mars-hell!

Most recently: Farcry
REALLY bad trailer for a most likely bad movie.

Eluith

Is this a trailer? It doesn't make sense.

DJNX

Looking surprisingly good.

CholeLean

>Game movies have, to the last, been truly awful.

@ Luke - Silent Hill was *not* awful, so please stop stating your opinion as fact.

GrandfatherParadox

I'm still a bit miffed by the seeming presence of literal Valkyries, but I'm totally going to see this day one.

interim

@Dappa: Dude it was almost the exact beginning of the game... and Mark Walburg is f'n awsome

Cueil

@psychobaka: I believe "sceptical" was the original spelling, though now it's largely only used in the UK and some parts of the former British Empire. "Skeptical" starting getting used in the US and other places since you can pronounce it phonetically with no trouble, whereas if you pronounced "sceptical" like "sceptre", you're doing it wrong.

nworobes

I have hope for this one. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't disappoint me.

Crawl to China

Wow looks very faithful. I even recognise a few lines that were (more or less) taken straight from the game.

"In a nightmare every decision you make is the wrong one"

"Dreams have a nasty habit of becoming nightmares when you're not looking"

Just to list a couple.

Kazem

you know, i was in bed last night thinking about what a movie would look like instead of cuts they had panel shifts like a comic, i gotta say i think i might be able to watch that feature length, quite well done IMO

doober187

Wow.

I just bought the Max Payne Pack on Steam for $7.49 just because you guys posted these trailers.

I havent finished either game, and these are classics.

killest

wow that looks incredibly good!

nEmmY

@agies: Oscar caliber? Honestly his brother was better in Band of Brothers than ANYTHING hes been in. Mark Wahlberg has the same bland, clueless character in every movie hes in, seemingly perpetually out of breath or channeling Keanu Reeves from Bill & Ted.

Mark Wahlberg cannot act. You might as well have just endorsed Vanilla Ice.

DashTheHand

A Dick Justice movie would be better, though the visuals would have to be stepped up from what they were in Max Payne 2.

Metal_Slug_Solid