Collegiate Times

When thinking about all the video-games-turned-movies, it's easy to say they are incredibly hit or miss. Well, Max Payne is a miss. I would have rather watched a middle schooler play the video game than have sat through the film.

I almost feel as if the fans were cheated by this movie when I heard that the film opened up number one at the box office. The trailer made the film out to look like a similar "Punisher" story, and what person doesn't enjoy those?

Mark Wahlberg plays Max Payne, a detective who comes home to find his wife and baby murdered. He sets out on a revenge rampage to discover who did it -- and he's on this rampage for two years. Payne sifts through old files of cases that have been dismissed, following cold leads and becoming further aggravated that his family's killer hasn't been brought to justice. Mila Kunis plays a Russian who is set to find the killer of her sister, last seen with Payne. Chris "Ludacris" Bridges -- that's right, the rapper -- plays an internal affairs officer looking to talk to Payne and help him.

There's backstabbing, double-crossing, and oh yeah, some demons and devils thrown in too. Make sense? Not really.

The acting is horrible across the board, though I'll give it to Kunis. She is usually known for the ditzy roles, but she pulled off a mediocre badass for the majority of the film. Ludacris, on the other hand, should stick to rapping.

Oh, Marky Mark -- what happened to you? Wahlberg delivered a great performance in "The Departed," but it went downhill from there in his performances from the horrendous yet hilarious horror "The Happening," and now this. Puffing your chest out and walking around with a face that looks like someone who smells the crap they just stepped in does not an action hero make.

The movie struggles constantly with whether it wants to be taken as a serious action movie or a "Constantine" wannabe with all of its mythological creatures. Screenwriter Beau Thorne must love Norse mythology, because it is referenced throughout the film. The drug company that Payne's deceased wife worked for is called Aesir, the name for a tribe of Norse gods.

A drug called Valkyr is made by the company and turns a lucky 1 percent or so of those who take it into unstoppable bulletproof warriors with a serious case of aggression. For virtually everyone else, the addictive drug turns them into lunatics, giving them hallucinations of demons and beasts. Part of what drove me mad while trying to watch the movie was that it was never clear whether the audience was supposed to think these creatures were real or simply a figment of imagination. If you pay attention, there is evidence of both being true, which makes absolutely no sense.

The one thing I can give this movie is that the beginning was catching and really had the audience following it. As the movie progressed, however, the audience's enthusiasm for the story spiraled downhill.

Leaving the theater and watching people's faces, it was clear that the expectations going into the movie were way too high, and I heard people ask one another questions on what they just saw and how it made any sense. Granted, that is to be expected when a film ends without any resolution. You'd think that people would have learned from "The Sopranos" that merely cutting to a black screen followed by the credits is not sufficient for ending a story.

Over-directed, poorly acted and hard to follow considering the lack of a sensible plot, this movie proves that Max Payne needs to stay in the video game realm.