It wasn’t so long ago that I was lamenting over the unwritten rule that almost every game-to-movie adaptation has to suck. To be fair, a lot of the time the problem seems to be the specific game that’s being adapted, in that it doesn’t particularly lend itself to an obvious choice for the silver-screen treatment. This wasn’t the case with the filmic potential of Max Payne, which seemed to be an obvious choice for a movie adaptation.
Then, of course, the Marky Mark adaptation hit and disappointed in a big bad way. Why they decided to stray so far from the noir source material is anybody’s guess, but they did, and if you saw the film, you know what I mean; if you didn’t see the film and are a Max Payne fan, don’t see it.
Dark Side of Gaming has uncovered a recently released and somewhat quirky fan flick called Max Payne: Valhalla that features many of the elements that the Hollywood adaptation seemingly forgot about. Sure, there’s bullet time and plenty of gunplay, but there’s also the dry voiceover, comic-book panel sequences and some decent production value, too.
If nothing else, you’re bound to enjoy the fourth-wall-smashing moment that takes place at 4.18.
