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Prince Of Persia – Shea Hennum Goes To The Movies

Published Wed, 26 May 2010 00:37:17 -0500

I'll say two things before I get into the review proper:

1) I could easily double the length of this review by talking about the historical inaccuracies in the movie, but I'm not going to. So, just know: there are a lot and let's leave it at that.

2) I won't be comparing-contrasting the movie and the games, because I haven't played any of the games and therefore know shit-all about them.

So….

Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time is an adaptation of a popular video game series and it even got a GN that Rich had previously reported on here.

The film is about Dastan, a former street urchin who is taken in and becomes a prince, who must keep his treacherous uncle from changing the past. Along the way he meets some enemies who become friends—very Princess Bride—and some bad guys who are essentially Fremen-lites. It's a Jerry Bruckheimer/Disney picture, which is a pretty good indication on the content (i.e. gore, language, etc. ) Although, there was a surprising amount of blood and death for a PG-13, family-friendly flick.

There weren't really any problems with the script, nothing really special but it wasn't like the typical "popcorn" films were about halfway through you just start poking holes in the plot. I wouldn't go so far as to say it was an airtight plot, but there wasn't anything that was just the writers trying to blatantly put one over on an audience they view as intellectually-inferior. I have my problems with it: the dialogue was clunky, often times unnecessary, occasionally repetitive, and some times cheesy; the themes were heavy-handed and blatant; there wasn't really any subtly, so much so that in some scenes it was like they wanted to make sure that know one walked out of that theater questioning what had happened in that particular scene. The most irksome thing, to me, though, was the opening and closing scenes where the audience was presented with desert shots with a text piece providing some obtuse definition of 'Destiny' (although, their definition of 'destiny' was actually a definition of 'reincarnation'). But these things were rewarded with some visual treats and jokes, some that appealed to little kids and some jokes (that I was not expecting at all) that were clearly directed at the adults, with Alfred Molina's character poking fun at taxes and bureaucracy. And the jokes, which I personally didn't think were that funny, played really well with the other people in theater, the laughs coming when they should be, that sorta thing.

I'll take that Alfred Molina name-drop as a chance to segue into the acting, which was hit or miss with me. The aforementioned Alfred Molina puts on a good show, creating this funny, sometimes hated, sometimes likable, character that the audience could really relate to and have fun with. Jake Gyllenhaal does the same, mostly playing for laughs but occasionally throwing on serious face for the films emotional moments. I would say that it was Gyllenhaal's worst movie—very far from it, actually—but it wouldn't be considered his best work. He does, however, look much more physically capable of portraying the character than I had originally thought. These two performances were followed by two of the most surprising things in the film: Ben Kingsley's performance and Gemma Arterton's performance.

When you go see a Kingsley flick you could nearly-always guarantee a good performance out of him, but in this one he took his worst day to a whole new level. The first thought that came to my mind, the first thing I likened him to was Kyle Gass' role as Zaftig the Eunuch in Year One, but this was too harsh, and by the end of the film Kingsley showed a little emotion. So my prognosis is: Ben Kingsley in PoP is 75% Zaftig and 25% Jafar (from Disney's animated Aladdin)

The other big surprise, as I said, was Gemma Arterton's job in this flick. The former Bond Girl really shows what she's capable in this movie. If you watch her face you can see the little twitches and ticks, the little, teensy facial expressions that let you in on what she's thinking. It's very subtle and a cool drink of water in this flick. I mean, this girl can truly emote on command, and emote well. It was shocking, that's how good Gemma is in this flick; easily the best part of the entire film.

While the acting was hit and miss, the film itself (and by that I mean: the direction and cinematography) was hit and miss, too. There were some shots that looked absolutely incredible, but they were bookended with some shots that looks absolutely amateurish, just complete and utter trash. So you'll see some phenomenal shots, sure, but you'll also see some random-ass slow-mo that just confuses you into thinking something important is going on in this scene and you need to look for it, but it turns out it's just Gyllenhaal walking down the street. But I guess you have to take the good with the bad.

And speaking of good, the special effects in the film were awesome. The dagger scenes where people are watching the sands of time quickly ebb and flow in reverse just look so damn cool, and there isn't really anything else I can say: it just looks so damn cool. Some of the arrow-POV shots made me think, "fuckin' Disney could do this right, but Ridley Scott couldn't manage to get AT LEAST one of these for Robin Hood?"

All-in-all it was the film epitome of a mixed bag.

If you're looking for a family film, or a kid's film, this is one that I think they would really enjoy (I base this off of the overheard words of kids that were calling it awesome and the best movie ever made, as well as the laughs from the two or three kids that I was sitting next to). For adults: I don't think you'll dig it as much as your kid but I also don't think it's as bad as Mark Millar thought it was

I'd give it a 2/5 or maybe a 3/10.

And please, don't ask me why everyone in the movie had an English accent. I don't know, I thought it was weird, and it didn't make a lick o' sense to me. But, I'm not really their target demographic, so it doesn't have to make sense to me. Am I saying that English accents can only be understood (philosophically)? I don't know, maybe.

–Shea Hennum

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