director: Mike Newell
writers: Jordan Mechner, Boaz Yakin, Doug Miro, Carlos Bernard
starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, Alfred Molina, Ben Kingsley
genre: Action, Adventure, Video Games
It's far better to go into one of these Hollywood super hyped films with low expectations. Believing that any of these films will be so easily better than the next is wishful thinking. Prince of Persia is an adventure film that doesn't dazzle, amaze or surprise us but nonetheless its still entertaining.
Prince of Persia is a video game series since the early 90's. With many video-games and variations to the story it was a great idea to make one of them into a film. They picked the Sands of Time and at least managed not to defile the original material while still managing to show what made the game so fun and famous.
In the film adaption of the game we follow Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal) a street child who is adopted by the king after showing courage. While apart of the royal family and prince. He follows his brothers into the capture of Amalut. The capture is shadowed by treachery of Amalut's ties with enemy's of Persia and within the royal family. Dastan accused of treason has to run for his life accompanied by the princess of Amalut. He will soon there after realize the true reason for the capture of Amalut is for ancient artifact the dagger that holds the sands of time.
First let me get out of the way that finally a video-game film came out that was successfully made for the mainstream audience and that didn't offend fans of the game. Prince of Persia manages to be the best video-game film ever as not a lot have been made or been of any significant quality except Mortal Kombat and Silent Hill.
Even though its one of the best video-games film ever made its still an mediocre film. Its kind of sad to see that the same people who brought you Pirates of the Caribbean couldn't bring the same level of quality with them. Either from the costumes that looked plain, or from the sets that looked cheap and to the Arabian setting of Persia that didn't look magical, beautiful or at all interesting. Just compare this to the the production of Kingdom of Heaven and you will see for yourself the differences in production value.
After the production problems there is also the matter of the direction of the film. POP is directed by Mike Newell who had done Goblet of Fire. In my opinion the best of the Harry Potter films. Here Newell either pressured probably by the studio or the production not understanding that the audience is sometimes smarter than they think show off Dastan's skills to a insane rate. Showcasing his park qua skills the way they did made it more obvious the need for stunt-work and less effects work in the film. They could have just done it in a Jackie Chan method and it would have looked cooler and more realistic.
By the end I actually managed to enjoy the film. After the 25th minute of the film the slow storytelling, terrible direction went away and there was sense to the story and the pacing. Also the actors did a great job for the film, especially Alfred Molina. For all its mistakes its a good popcorn film and personally felt i got my money's worth and hope the same for you.
Personal Rating:
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