20 Video Game Movie and TV Moments That INSULTED Fans
6. Valkyr Super-Juice - Max Payne (2008)
The less said about John Moore’s Max Payne adaptation the better, and yet here we are…
Thumbing Marky-Mark Wahlberg uncomfortably into the title role, the film charts the detective’s path to vengeance, right through the middle of New York City's criminal underworld, following the murder of his wife and child. It’s something of a time-honoured narrative by now, and while the original 2001 game offers enough story to keep this intriguing, the film manages to bungle even this, in the process settling into an uninspired and frankly boring niche.
A key part of Max’s case is the investigation of mysterious new drug Valkyr, but fans of the game who were expecting it to be packaged up as the new street hit were in for a surprise. While the games pepper in allusions to Norse mythology, the film takes the armbands off and dives in at the deep end. Max has a quick slurp of super-soldier serum Valkyr, screams like a sasquatch and goes on a berserker rampage surrounded by Norse mythology Valkyries...
The aesthetics are striking throughout, and yet this addition of winged monsters doesn’t jibe with the noir, austere underpinnings.