Max Payne Not Okay, Says Internet

Ouch.

I have not yet seen the film, but all indicators seem to point to it being a complete mess. The worst part about a failure like this is that it serves only to embolden Roger Ebert's and his fellow critics' dismissive attitude towards the medium as a valid art form. You'll see plenty of review blurbs that simply say "It's a video game movie, so you know it's not good." The problem isn't video game movies, it's the people making them and the people choosing which properties to give the film treatment in the first place. I could have told you, even at a young age when there were rumors of it starring Schwarzenegger, that Doom was not going to be a good movie. Fighting games are almost completely devoid of story to begin with, but the more popular franchises (Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and even Dead or Alive) get live-action counterparts. I understand what drives these decisions; the games are well-known, big sellers, not necessarily if it has a compelling story. This is why the Halo movie has not been snuffed out yet and there's a Gears of War film on the way.
All I can do is sit back and dream about what it would be like if a studio like Pixar were to make a Grim Fandango movie.

-K.