3D Realms"Bewildered" By Max Payne Movie

[Andy Chalk]

3D Realms"Bewildered" By Max Payne Movie

The 3D Realms [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0467197/] CEO Scott Miller says he's "bewildered" by the movie.

The story strayed significantly from the source material, according to Miller, whose company is given production credit on the two Edge Online [http://www.rockstargames.com/maxpayne/splash.html], citing as an example the death of drug dealer Jack Lupino, who is "lamely killed by one of the film's non-action characters" instead of by Max Payne himself.

"The entire time we're told that this drug makes 1-in-100 people super-human, yet Lupino doesn't demonstrate this in the least," Miller complained. "It should have taken a hail storm of bullets to bring him down, plus it should have been Max that kills him."

Miller also pointed out that while gamers are confronted with the murder of Payne's family right from the start, this rather vital piece of information isn't revealed until well into the movie despite it being the character's primary motivation. "A big problem with the film is that we do not really know what is driving Max until we see the flashback scene showing him coming home and finding his family murdered," he said. "In the game, we put this scene right at the front of the story for a reason! Saving this scene until mid-film is a narrative blunder, because the audience needs to empathize with Max in order to like him and understand what drives him."

Miller, who's clearly not a fan of the movie, said he "could go on and on" about the movie's various faults. Despite his misgivings, however, Max Payne debuted The Secret Life of Bees [http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Movies/10/19/boxoffice.ap/index.html], isn't about to set the world of cinema on fire.


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[Melaisis]

I love this.

Instead of a Uwe Boll adaption, where people would simply say its bad outright because its directed by an idiot, people are bumbling and staggering in a confused sombre when it comes to the Max Payne film. 'B-b-b-b-but it was supposed to be good!' they insist, their minds clouded by the nostalgia of playing the original games, not realising how shallow the games actually were. 'I-i-i-i-i-its not possible for it to have turned out bad!' Well it did. Miller should shut up, and have reviewed the screenplay before they gave the rights away. Now he's attempting to redeem himself and his lazy studio by poking fun at it, but a shit film is, ultimately, their fault. Besides, its not as if they were busy doing stuff in the meantime. Surely they could have intervened during production and said 'no, that's crap; take it out'. But they didn't. Its just as much Miller's fault as it is the movie's.

 

[smallharmlesskitten]

I'm just laughing that they are doing a slightly watered down duke

 

[Royas]

If there ever were any games that should have translated well to the movie setting, I'd say the Max Payne series would be them (shallow? WTF game were you playing dude? Couldn't have been Max Payne).

 

[crowTrobot]

Good to know that the 3D Realms CEO has plenty of time to criticize a crappy video game movie, but not enough to work on Duke Nukem Forever...

 

[SonofSeth]

If there ever were any games that should have translated well to the movie setting, I'd say the Max Payne series would be them (shallow? WTF game were you playing dude? Couldn't have been Max Payne).

He must be one of those who skipped the graphic novels between the shooting part.

 

[Dectilon]

"In the game, we put this scene right at the front of the story for a reason!"

In the front of the story? What? ~~

It's impressive how much this guy sounds like nothing but your average raging nerd. Just like the movie Constantine is an incredible piece of shit while some of the comcics are among the finest the world of comics has to offer the source material for this movie was better. Not as good as some claim, but superior none the less.

 

[Cyclomega]

I love this.

Instead of a Uwe Boll adaption, where people would simply say its bad outright because its directed by an idiot, people are bumbling and staggering in a confused sombre when it comes to the Max Payne film. 'B-b-b-b-but it was supposed to be good!' they insist, their minds clouded by the nostalgia of playing the original games, not realising how shallow the games actually were. 'I-i-i-i-i-its not possible for it to have turned out bad!' Well it did. Miller should shut up, and have reviewed the screenplay before they gave the rights away. Now he's attempting to redeem himself and his lazy studio by poking fun at it, but a shit film is, ultimately, their fault. Besides, its not as if they were busy doing stuff in the meantime. Surely they could have intervened during production and said 'no, that's crap; take it out'. But they didn't. Its just as much Miller's fault as it is the movie's.

Now while the games were shallow, they had a very good noir/gun movie story, and it was absolutely enough as itself. Sin City is as shallow, what with Frank Miller's obesssion with prostitutes and maiming... Not worse than a John Woo HK flick, enough fun and gun for everybody.
By the way, who told you they were taking any part on the movie ? Maybe the production did not let them have a word in it, and they could only suffer at the failure that it turned out to be... Maybe it was explicitly told that they just bought the copyrighted names and did not let them participate.

Seems to me like you hated the Max Payne games as well, and as such you take this opportunity to talk shit about both a failed movie and a studio you resent for whatever reason I won't care about...

 

[Volucer]

I thought the games really lent themselves to a good movie storyline. It would have been a perfect noir/action film...what we got...not so much...

 

[xitel]

I'm not surprised. I have yet to see a video game movie that stuck to the plot of the game and didn't embellish/alter it. It's simply because the movie going public is different from the Gaming public. It's inevitable for the story to change, and when it does the people who have a vested interest in the storyline, i.e. the people who loved the game and the people who made the game, are going to be angry when it does.

 

[Andy Chalk]

I thought Max Payne would be good as a movie because all the writer/director/producer/whatever needed to do was follow the plot of the game and insert action scenes as needed. Seriously. Movie opens with Max returning home, only to be met with the grisly scene of his family's murder. Pain, rage, etc., he wastes one or two of the drugged-up scumbags he catches in the house. Foreboding flash of the Valkyr symbol spray painted on a wall. Fade to black, roll intro theme and credits. Take it from there.

In the immortal words of William Hurt, "HOW DO YOU FUCK THAT UP?"

 

[Cyclomega]

I like your idea, but thet you should keep the part where he says he stops smoking for his daughter and all the pseudo-Marlowesque soliloquies.

By the way, I think the game's intro is perfect, how bad would have that been to simply ape it from A to Z ? I mean it, Max Payne has a flashback-based flow, Fight Club (the movie, there IS NO Fight Club game) did this as well and it was brilliant, why fuck with it, ruin it and then let people complain video games suck ? Oh wait, I know... Because Hollywood hates everyone and believes vidya gaem-tards will buy anything based on their gaems...

Well DooM was crap, don't get me started on Uwe Boll, Super Mario was a parody in my opinion, Mortal Kombat is laughably "popcorn", and Street Fighter sucks balls. The upcoming Street Fighter : Legend of Chun-Li will suck as well (Kristine Kreuk is tappable, but no, and crappy rappers ? playing Balrog (Vega outside Japan) ? in MY Street Fighter movie ? It's more likely than you think...) Let's not mention Tekken... For the love of God what are they thinking ? the Resident Evil series was vaguely relevant for the first one, pitoyably failed for the following ones, Tomb Raider(s) suck, and I have very low hopes for the Kane & Lynch movie (despite Bruce Willis) or the Prince of Persia movie.* And let's not mention Final Fantasy... I found Silent Hill amusing, I'll confess... Hitman also was disappointing, amusing, but disappointing

There are a lot of good things you can do with movies and video games (the Riddick series, albeit a bit simplistic and nonsensical, manages to make a very coherent storyline through the game, both movies and the cartoon).

Sometimes, it really seems like no one wants to care about making a good action flick from a (good ?) game... I'd like to think Midway managed to do the opposite, by making a good action game from a good movie (Stranglehold).

Maybe they should stop making game-based movies, or hire the game's scenarists and storyboard artists... Then again, why do I bother ? It's not like it's going to happen...

There are great plots in video games, we all know it, but why does it seem so hard to simply make a carbon copy of it, or hire the people who wrote the damn game ?



*BTW, if the PoP movie is based on Sands of Time, and they're making a game of the movie, that would make a game of the movie of the game... I can only say to this : NGA WUT?

 

[Darth Marsden]

BTW, if the PoP movie is based on Sands of Time, and they're making a game of the movie, that would make a game of the movie of the game... I can only say to this : NGA WUT?

They did this for Street Fighter. Both movie and game-based-on-movie were awful. But that's only to be expected, really.

I've yet to see the movie, but when I do I'll try to make judgement of it on two counts.

1) Is it an enjoyable movie?
2) Is it a good game-to-film adaptation?

If the answer to the first question is No, then the second question is irrelevant. If the answer to the second question is No, then that doesn't automatically condemn the film. Gamers need to realise that, but unfortunately they're so set in their ways that if the film-makers make even one change they don't like, they automatically condemn it.

That said, it's hard to think of a video-game movie that didn't suck, so maybe they have a point. Unless we count Anime, but I don't think we are. Are we?

And yes, I realise that's a generalization, but most things I say are. There's always exceptions.

 

[drkotaku]

Summed up simply, "3d Realms 'Bewildered' by Max Payne Movie" As are the rest of us ^_^

But you gotta laugh, you know an adaptation is poor when the entire preview audience (including the original creator) goes 'erm....wha?'