2010 Review #15: Prince of Persia

Prince of Persia
Rated PG-13
(intense sequences of violence and action)
1 hour 56 minutes

Storyline:
Based on the video game, which follows an adventurous prince who teams up with a rival princess to stop an angry ruler from unleashing a sandstorm that could destroy the world.

Cast:
Jake Gyllenhaal
Gemma Arterton
Ben Kingsley
Alfred Molina

Critic's Grade:
F
(Consensus: It doesn't offer much in the way of substance, but Prince of Persia is a suitably entertaining swashbuckler -- and a substantial improvement over most video game adaptations.)

My Grade:
D+

Another movie that I'm not going to waste a lot of time on reviewing. Here we have another movie based off a video game, and honestly it's very rare that a video game translates to a really good movie. Nothing changes much here. Here's the problem with adapting a video game: there is SO much story packed into the game itself, because you get hours upon hours of game play. When you transition that to film you basically have to create your own story off the game, but still use some of the well known elements from the game itself to still have the connection. I've never played the video game this movie is based off. After seeing this movie...I would never want to. But I guess the movie does not represent the game to it's fullest. I think the main connections between both film and game here are the setting and that nifty dagger thing that can temporarily turn back time (essentially the main plot of the film).

This is a movie from Disney productions...and that is so painfully clear while watching the film. Have you ever been to Disneyland and watched some of their shows they put on? Think about the sets and costumes if you can...well that's almost exactly the production value you get in this film. At least for most of the film. A lot of the little cities look like they came straight from the theme park. They look fake. Obviously they are supposed to be fake, but you have to make them look as real as possibly. The visual effects aren't much better either, they at times either look like a cartoon or maybe at best...video game graphics. If that was intentional to relate to the game, than awesome. If not, and that was an actual effort to bring this world to life, they really swung and missed...or at least swung and foul tipped it. There were some cool effect scenes though, mainly towards the end when all the action came into play. They also had a lot of slow motion camera shots which seemed so ridiculous and "current". Meaning that a movie set in this time doesn't really bode well with slow mo jumping off roof scenes or slow mo punching. Again...could be a reference to the game, I don't know.
The acting here is actually really bad...almost excruciating to watch. First off, Oscar nominee Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain, Donnie Darko) was not a good fit. He had a pretty mediocre British accent (even though his character is Persian??). And it felt like a high school play performance. Sure he's kind of pretty (although I don't see the real appeal) but man this was by far his worst performance I've seen him do. That woman who played the princess...good Lord was she unbearable to listen to most of this movie. Sure she is pretty too...but ugh, it felt like it was her first gig ever (although I know it's not). It was like she won a contest to be in a movie with Jake Gyllenhaal or something. I have NO idea why such talented actors as Oscar winner Ben Kingsley (Gandhi, Shutter Island) and Alfred Molina (Spiderman 2, Magnolia) even chose to be in this movie. If their agents picked it for them...shame on them. Their talent is far greater than this film and they they both gave performances like they knew they were making a big mistake.


This movie wasn't totally dreadful to me, it had some redeeming action moments...but that's all it really had. It didn't feel like a video game movie...even though the graphics looked like a game. The performances sucked big time, the sets were laughable and this whole movie just stunk it up big time. Sure it's better than that shit fest MacGruber...but that isn't saying much at all. I just didn't care for this movie at all.