New Review: Prince of Persia

Sand Storm

This is truly the season for the summer blockbuster; it's right on track with last year. Actually, three years ago seems to be more precise. The first weekend was a comic book movie sequel which held its own throughout the second weekend, the third weekend was another Shrek movie, and the last weekend is a Disney/Bruckheimer production. It's actually kinda strange how well that all falls into place. This year, the new collaboration between the Walt Disney Company and mega-producer Jerry Bruckheimer also has another source material thrown into the mix, and some would argue that it's just as frivolous as a theme park ride.

Based on the well known videogame (which means its reputation is already compromised), the prince in question is Dastan, played by Jake Gyllenhaal in a controversial casting decision. To get around it, Dastan has been set as an English orphan in the Persian streets who gets taken in by the local royalty. He grows up to be a great warrior, who by the influence of his uncle Nazim (Ben Kingsley), invades the local walled-off city because intel says their harboring weapons. When that accusation turns out to be false, Dastan and the princess Tamina (Gemma Artenton) are on a quest to clear the Prince's name as well as return the magical dagger with the power of time travel back to the sacred place it came from.

So far, films based on videogames have the hardest time succeeding. Most of them are absolute failures without a hint of creativity. Thankfully, this one has a pretty good start because of director Mike Newell, who has ventured into this territory before with the fourth Harry Potter movie. Newell is a very accomplished director, and his abilities to move the camera well gives the action a nice beet of entertainment. However, the cluttering of three editors, all very talented, means that the action goes back and forth between entertaining and indiscernible. While I wish the editors realized the phrase "more editing doesn't equal good editing," Newell does his best to compensate. However, the true poison to the film is the god-awful script which clouds up the place with a clunky dialogue, broadly sketched characters, parts of the story that feel missing, and an ending that is so absurd it feels like a big middle finger to the audience.

The reason why Bruckheimer's Pirates worked so well was because it had someone like Johnny Depp to take the lead. This film can't afford to have someone like that in the lead here, but Gyllenhaal is a good enough actor to fulfill the hero role. Arterton is also good, but the two of them work better together, and their playful and credible chemistry works well to make up for such a colorful character. The only one who comes close to that manic energy is Alfred Molina, who plays a street merchant obsessed with avoiding unfair taxes, adding to another blatant political message in the film. He's hammy for sure, but a pure delight in every scene he's in. Kinglsey turns in some restrained work for a change, but he's just another cardboard character in a sea of them in this film.

Is this a terrible film: no, and by the standards of videogame movies, it's actually not bad at all. However, as a rollicking action romp, it could certainly be better. The action sequences vary from the well and poorly executed, the performances range from the phoned in to the credible attempt and the humor is pretty much flat against a horrible script. Still, I have to say that I had a more enjoyable time watching this film than I had during anything else this summer, including Iron Man 2. It's not perfect, but considering the season so far, I'll take it.

B