Movie Monday

Max Payne (review from the trailers)

I only saw one long trailer because I don’t think there is enough depth in this movie to bother and watch more trailers hoping to catch nuances.

First, the title. Max Payne = Maximum Pain You think? That may be the extent of the deep thinking you need for this flick.

Second, the music in the trailer. I loved it. Of course, it’s 5 a.m. and my judgment may be clouded. But the music is really catchy. I would watch the movie even if it were a dud if this is the score.

On to the trailer:

You get your typical mixture of reality and surrealism. A scene of the hero looking at an empty (child’s?) bedroom and then a shot of a multi-feathered creature (though I think it would like the word “winged” better) pulling a man through a wall to the outside - and I mean outside being 60 feet above the street.

The trailer starts with Max Payne in a river, a woman in a red dress with a meaningful tattoo, and your typical soothsayer explaining the origin of these winged creatures and saying that the devil is building his army. Good to know.

However, I don’t know why screen writers think it necessary to explain these grossly violent fairy tales. The Brothers Grimm (now there’s a name for you) didn’t. They would begin: “Once, there was an ogre who lived in a castle and ate all who ventured on his land.” No back story necessary.

But here we learn there are really bad things out there with wings who are doing some wicked things. They are compared to Valkyries, whom, as I remember, were not the bad guys (really gals) in Norse mythology. However, their love of violence is pretty obvious with the line “the devil is building his army.” I never knew the devil to build a peace keeping force.

Anyway, Max Payne and some woman with a really big gun are tracking these winged guys and others. Max is a cop though he seems to be working outside of his job. (Bad guy: Are you a cop? Max: Not tonight.) There are really, really bad people and places around here since the woman with the gun even refuses to help Max if he goes “in there.” Where’s there? It must be bad.

And so it goes. Explosions; a moment of calm; explosions; surrealism; explosions. You know the drill.

I’ll assume something bad happened to Max’s family and this is his revenge tale. Whether he winds up dead in the river as shown in the trailer may be the movie’s mystery.

What do I expect from the trailer:

Not much. This is pure escapism. You can leave your brain in the lobby. But the music. I loved the music. When it gets on TV, I’ll watch it for the music.