昨天在某视频网站上看到了Max Payne 游戏的同名的电影，my holy god！我可是对 Max Payne I, II 游戏都怀着无比热爱的人士，想当年这2个游戏都是通关数次的，也曾经抱着字典看里面的漫画剧情台词，也曾经下载游戏的音乐来听。看完电影后，感觉，电影对这个主题的理解和本身差得太远了。简单说就是，电影真烂。

Max Payne I 的没有游戏副标题，但我认为游戏宣传封面上的 A man with nothing to lose 可以看作是这一作的副标题。
游戏开头就是Max站在结局情节发生后的大楼上，然后时光回溯到三年前事件起始的时候（这种倒叙的手法让这个游戏更有一些电影的味道，所以它已经把很多电影里面玩的招都玩了吧，搞得改编电影没得玩了）。本来有着漂亮老婆和女儿的侦探Max同学，突然某天被入室歹徒干掉了除他之外全家人， 原因是他妻子不小心卷入的Valkyr毒品的内幕。之后Max转到了DAE(Drug Enforcement Administration)，去某毒枭手下当了卧底。某天同事BB通知他去见另一个同事Alex，也是他的卧底身份的唯一知情人（类似于无间道里面的黄秋生），结果Alex当场被杀手干掉，Max的卧底身份不能被官方知晓，作为Alex谋杀的头号嫌疑犯被通缉。回到黑帮又被揭穿了卧底身份，被黑帮追杀。基本上游戏就是在这样一个背景下展开的，妻女双亡、警察通缉、黑帮追杀、所以确实是 A man with nothing to lose。当然，nb人物max在这个情况下还是最后平了黑帮、找到了V毒品的军方背景、杀入药品公司Aesir干掉头目，最后在Inner Circle的Alfred woden帮助下脱困，这就是第一集的基本剧情。当然，其中一个的亮点是来自黑帮的女杀手Mona Sax，也是第二集的主要情节。
上面的情节描述可以知道，游戏的主题就是黑暗、压抑、寒冷、绝望、痛苦，整个游戏过程中，纽约市都笼罩在百年不遇的暴风雪中，寒风中烤火的人、游戏中见到的电视机中播音员播报暴风雪和通缉犯Max的新闻、骂骂咧咧的NPC们、漫画加真人配音的叙事形式、超级棒的音乐（比如主题音乐低音大提琴的独奏）、阴森恐怖的V毒品上瘾者的房间、大量的蜡烛作为室内光源，这些都把那种特别黑暗、压抑、寒冷、绝望、痛苦的气氛烘托的非常棒。在电影中，导演似乎只学到了蜡烛光这一招，而且有些过分强调V毒品恐怖的气氛了，这点从根本上就错了，Max Payne是英文Max Pain（最大痛苦）的同音词，主角这么不幸的遭遇，体现的是这点，不是V毒品的恐怖。
第二集的副标题是：The Fall of Max Payne。是讲了第一集事件发生的2年之后，Max在纽约警察局当侦探，在调查一帮名为Cleaners的黑帮杀手的时候又碰到了第一集的杀手Mona Sax，他显然是喜欢上Sax了，其中有一幕是监视Max的杀手对Max进行的电话录音，录到了一段Max晚上拨打的色情热线：
Operator: Thank you for calling Dangerous Liaisons. For Candy, press one. For Sandy, press two. For Mona, press three.
Max Payne: [presses three on the phone]
Operator: You pressed three for Mona.
Mona (not Sax): Hi, this is Mona. What's your name?
Max Payne: I just need someone to talk to.
Mona (not Sax): Honey, this is a phone sex line; all we do is talk.
Max Payne: Right. It's... how do you fix something like that? How do you make amends? I thought it would help, but it only made it worse.
Mona (not Sax): Just give me your credit card number and I can listen to you all night.
Max Payne: Killing them all only made it worse; it didn't bring them back.
Mona (not Sax): Hey! What are you, some kind of a weirdo?
Max Payne: Sorry... this was... sorry.
[Hangs up]
Max帮她逃出了警局，Max为她干掉了自己的搭档Winterson（后来发现是俄罗斯黑帮头子Vladimir的情妇），后来发现Cleaners其实是Vladimir的手下，Vladimir和Mona都是上一集最后帮助他免于起诉的参议员Alfred woden的手下，不过Mona拒绝了杀Max的命令，于是他们两个都要被干掉。最后的结局当然是Max和Mona一路杀回去，干掉了Vladimir和Alfred woden。（如果是最高难度通关的话，Mona不会死，否则就只有Max幸存）。
这一集的Max显然是堕落了，虽然凭直觉干掉了确实有问题的Winterson，不过当时这可算是帮助一个逃犯杀手干掉了纽约的探员，Max在失去一切之后显然是很孤独的，其中有一段他和Mona的台词是这样的：
Mona Sax: What are you so afraid of? What do you want from me?
Max Payne: [coming closer to Mona] 'The things that I want' by Max Payne
Max Payne: A smoke. A Whiskey. For the sun to shine.
Max Payne: [starting a passionate kissing session] I want to sleep, to forget. To change the past. My wife and baby girl back
Max Payne: Unlimited ammo and a licence to kill. Right then, more than anything, I wanted her.

Max Payne游戏是相当诗意的，不仅语言很诗意，连主题曲都是一首诗。Max Payne曾经在和Winterson打电话的时候有过三段式的短句：can't talk, don't know, gotta go. 这个句子当年在我们宿舍还是经常被使用的。Max Payne曾有下面这样的内心独白：
Vlad was right. There are no choices. Nothing but a straight line. The illusion comes afterwards, when you ask 'Why me?' and 'What if?'. When you look back and see the branches, like a pruned bonsai tree, or forked lightning. If you had done something differently, it wouldn't be you. It would be someone else looking back, asking a different set of questions.

总之，Max Payne 的1、2游戏都是内涵非常不错的游戏，里面有很多意境、甚至是细节的小人物的台词都可以挖掘。电影在这点上搞得太烂了，保留了很多东西，偏偏没有留下意境。btw，提醒大家一句，如果要看电影的话，不要用到了迅雷看看上的那个在线看了，听译的台词是错的，对着那个台词看，保证你看完了也不知道讲的是啥，用本书把显示台词的地方挡住还可以将就看。

最后，Max Payne 2 的主题曲是A late goodbye，是芬兰乐队Poets of the Fall，歌词是基于Sam Lake的一首讲述他的一个梦的一首诗，btw，Sam Lake同时也是Max Payne游戏的剧情作者和游戏人物造型的原型人物：

Late Goodbye

in our headlights, staring, bleak, beer cans, deer's eyes
on the asphalt underneath, our crushed plans and my lies
lonely street signs, powerlines, they keep on flashing, flashing by

and we keep driving into the night
it's a late goodbye, such a late goodbye
and we keep driving into the night
it's a late goodbye

your breath hot upon my cheek, and we crossed, that line
you made me strong when I was feeling weak, and we crossed, that one time
screaming stop signs, staring wild eyes, keep on flashing, flashing by

and we keep driving into the night
it's a late goodbye, such a late goodbye
and we keep driving into the night
it's a late goodbye

the devil grins from ear to ear when he sees the hand he's dealt us
points at your flaming hair, and then we're playing hide and seek
I can't breathe easy here, less our trail's gone cold behind us
till' in the john mirror you stare at yourself grown old and weak

and we keep driving into the night
it's a late goodbye, such a late goodbye...

Based on a poem by Sam Lake