Max Payne
Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
" It is not as payneful as you might consider, but payneless it isn't as well. "Written by Thomas Glorieux - Review of the regular release
If certain games are made for actual cinematic live-action, then Max Payne was surely one of the highest on the list. An enticing story, a gray bleak look and a graphic engine giving us back that bullet time effect of the Matrix films. From what I saw in the trailer, the movie more or less uses any stunt that came in the game, apart from the bullet time action. But what's more unbelievable is that demons are now part of Max Payne's world, giving the movie a Hellboy feel it didn't need at all. If people keep screwing up what a game stands for, it is best to leave it in the engine of computers and not on the cinematic screen.
Nonetheless, Max Payne was born and Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders received their shot as actual composers. However the men that did deserve their shot the most were Kärtsy Hatakka and Kimmo Kajasto, the actual composers of the game. Nailing the bleak sound of the entire story with a downright colorful cello theme as main theme, it was important that the sound reminded us of the game as well. Silent Hill stands as one of the most brilliant video game adaptations made into a live film, because it stuck to the script of the game, the sound as the music. Nothing of this is present, yet you do receive the bleakness from the world of Max Payne. Marco Beltrami is a fine composer, but sometimes he can be so boring. So boring that the music feels uninspiring. And be ready to receive a lot of that in Max Payne.
The opening "Max Payne" shows you what to expect. Bleak and rhythmic music, typical Beltrami's stings and unexpected synthesized tones, unraveling a typical brassy Beltrami maneuver in "Investigation" and an atypical one in "Payneful Piano", bringing us an atonal piano progression that took days to get it wrong.
But the Beltrami stings are not the problem here, the lack of interesting flashes of Gothic material (Hellboy or I, Robot) and the creation of thundering action music (Mimic) are. "Colvin Quivers" is like suspenseful horror music, running around with techniques to make it effective without making it interesting. In this track the rhythm is what keeps it average. But there are other ones. "Dethlab" and "Vote for Dennis" are the boring ones, "Lupino Spreads his Wings" is the stingy one, "Max Returns Home" is the on edge one and "BB's Maxim" is the already heard one. Hardly killer material I say.
Some acceptable fare (albeit pushing it) is "No Respects for You", a light dramatic piece with too much sound design around it. The rhythmic Terminator 3 like "Factoring Max" and the fanfare moment in "Window Payne" are acceptable as well. But the emotion in "Dark Heaven" and "Heaven to the Max" (covering a truly lovely string sound) are simply put sensational. If these weren't part of the soundtrack, I wonder what would have become of this album? Because I'm not even going to comment on "Topless Fanfare".
Once again, in a time where everything is released, it is important to categorize what's important and what's not. They're will be fans that think Max Payne is a fine album, but I'm curious if even the true Beltrami fanatics will consider this an interesting one. Effective and with a distinct nudge to the movie for its overall bleak effect, it misses that colorful main theme of the game as cornerstone, as some interesting ideas to keep it enjoyable. In short Max Payne is an album showing average qualities of a Beltrami we already heard before.
Tracklisting
1. Max Attacks (3.52)
2. Investigation (3.30)
3. Payneful Piano (2.17)
4. Colvin Quivers (3.34)
5. Dethlab (2.33)
6. Storming the Office (1.55)
7. No Respects for You (2.37)
8. Lupino Spreads his Wings (1.51)
9. Max Returns Home (2.05)
10. Factoring Max (1.47)
11. Window Payne (3.33)
12. Dark Heaven (2.40)
13. Vote for Dennis (2.05)
14. BB's Maxim (2.48)
15. Max Marches On (2.26)
16. Heaven to the Max (1.48)
17. Topless Fanfare (3.10)
Total Length: 44.39
Nonetheless, Max Payne was born and Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders received their shot as actual composers. However the men that did deserve their shot the most were Kärtsy Hatakka and Kimmo Kajasto, the actual composers of the game. Nailing the bleak sound of the entire story with a downright colorful cello theme as main theme, it was important that the sound reminded us of the game as well. Silent Hill stands as one of the most brilliant video game adaptations made into a live film, because it stuck to the script of the game, the sound as the music. Nothing of this is present, yet you do receive the bleakness from the world of Max Payne. Marco Beltrami is a fine composer, but sometimes he can be so boring. So boring that the music feels uninspiring. And be ready to receive a lot of that in Max Payne.
The opening "Max Payne" shows you what to expect. Bleak and rhythmic music, typical Beltrami's stings and unexpected synthesized tones, unraveling a typical brassy Beltrami maneuver in "Investigation" and an atypical one in "Payneful Piano", bringing us an atonal piano progression that took days to get it wrong.
But the Beltrami stings are not the problem here, the lack of interesting flashes of Gothic material (Hellboy or I, Robot) and the creation of thundering action music (Mimic) are. "Colvin Quivers" is like suspenseful horror music, running around with techniques to make it effective without making it interesting. In this track the rhythm is what keeps it average. But there are other ones. "Dethlab" and "Vote for Dennis" are the boring ones, "Lupino Spreads his Wings" is the stingy one, "Max Returns Home" is the on edge one and "BB's Maxim" is the already heard one. Hardly killer material I say.
Some acceptable fare (albeit pushing it) is "No Respects for You", a light dramatic piece with too much sound design around it. The rhythmic Terminator 3 like "Factoring Max" and the fanfare moment in "Window Payne" are acceptable as well. But the emotion in "Dark Heaven" and "Heaven to the Max" (covering a truly lovely string sound) are simply put sensational. If these weren't part of the soundtrack, I wonder what would have become of this album? Because I'm not even going to comment on "Topless Fanfare".
Once again, in a time where everything is released, it is important to categorize what's important and what's not. They're will be fans that think Max Payne is a fine album, but I'm curious if even the true Beltrami fanatics will consider this an interesting one. Effective and with a distinct nudge to the movie for its overall bleak effect, it misses that colorful main theme of the game as cornerstone, as some interesting ideas to keep it enjoyable. In short Max Payne is an album showing average qualities of a Beltrami we already heard before.
Tracklisting
1. Max Attacks (3.52)
2. Investigation (3.30)
3. Payneful Piano (2.17)
4. Colvin Quivers (3.34)
5. Dethlab (2.33)
6. Storming the Office (1.55)
7. No Respects for You (2.37)
8. Lupino Spreads his Wings (1.51)
9. Max Returns Home (2.05)
10. Factoring Max (1.47)
11. Window Payne (3.33)
12. Dark Heaven (2.40)
13. Vote for Dennis (2.05)
14. BB's Maxim (2.48)
15. Max Marches On (2.26)
16. Heaven to the Max (1.48)
17. Topless Fanfare (3.10)
Total Length: 44.39