Max Payne Trailer #2

Even Bruce Wayne is beginning to think Max Payne will be a sizable hit and worth seeing. A new theatrical trailer for Fox's video game adaptation contains even more shots of the hypnotic angels-of-death that continue to puzzle the games' followers. We learn herein that the winged beings are referred to as "valkyries," and reward people who "die in violence." Clarification, meh. Backed by the vocals of Marilyn Manson (our second reference today, k), the new trailer better emphasizes a brooding, escalatory tone that plays the right notes of fanboy nihilism. Also present are the high-charged visuals that wowed our staff at Comic Con. For a PG-13 video game gun-porn flick with many doubters, my latest impression? For what it is, Max Payne clicked.

Current comparisons online to the R-rated, totally cheeseball Hitman are predictable and warranted, but the confidence expressed in the press by Mark Wahlberg and John Moore—once attached to X3—doesn't seem like a contractual shill-routine to me. This trailer's vague mix of occult imagery and organized crime recalls past genre fare like The Crow and middling efforts like End of Days, and Constantine, but there's also the sense that TDK's rating boundary-pushing was a real inspiration. And, c'mon, Mila Kunis firing a machine gun is equal doses ridiculous and hormone-tickling. I hereby move my chips over from Punisher: War Zone to Max Payne; admittedly, this is not a major gamble, but Payne does feature Ludacris in a fedora. Hope I'm right.

Max Payne opens on October 17th.

Discuss: Will Max Payne be a hit? What's your impression of the final theatrical trailer? Is it cool or stupid or both? Are the valkyries symbolic or real?