Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (2010)
Like the rest of the world, I had become sick of the relentless year-long advertising campaign for Prince of Persia. The film looked computer-effect heavy and appeared to have been written by a child. I have played the most recent series of Prince of Persia games and I am familiar with the lore. I went into the film expecting to see Jake Gyllenhall leap around, run up walls, swing from posts, and slice up bad guys. And you know what, the film delivered that much. Trust me, there is a lot of terrific stunt work that is curiously absent from the trailers. The action was there and it was thrilling. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for the rest of the movie.
The story, on paper, is not bad. The writing, particularly the dialogue, is bad. The story involves Prince Dastan, played by Gyllenhall, who is accused of murdering his father and must flee in order to save the world. He has two brothers and an uncle, played by Ben Kingsley, hunting him down. Cue a series of acrobatic action scenes as Dastan finds the dagger of time and must protect it from falling into the wrong hands as he attempts to clear his name and reunite his family. The dagger has the power to reverse time, if only by a minute, and only when it has enough special sand. Of course the special sand is located in a secret underground temple that begins collapsing just has our heroes arrive to save the world. Most of the computer effect wizardry is thankfully saved for this weak and unsatisfying final act. Up to this point, the film is very watchable.
If it all sounds a bit cliché, it is. Once again, screenwriters sought to write an original take on a videogame story. I understand that videogame stories cannot be directly adapted because the mediums are different and serve different goals. A movie of Dastan searching temple after temple and solving various acrobatic puzzles would not be very entertaining. However, the game still has a core story that was much better than the one written for the movie. Why adapt a videogame if you are going to rewrite the story? What is left to adapt? Character names, locations, choreography, and costumes. But many videogames have strong narratives too. Some have incredibly complex themes that are even better served by the interactive medium than by the film medium. Producers need to start giving more credit to the source material. Yes, there has never been a truly great videogame movie. But there has also never been a truly faithful videogame adaption.
The final verdict: Prince of Persia is an entertaining summer movie with some thrilling stunts, but is otherwise another mediocre entry in the summer slate.
I agree with you on this one. I haven't play any of the video games this movie is based on, nor have I even seen it being played, I knew nothing of its original story. That being said it was still a summer popcorn movie with big flashy effects from which you should remove your brain upon viewing. Fairly predictable story with average and better then average acting depending on who was on screen.
ReplyDeleteAs much as I would have like to have seen it on the big screen where it should be seen, I am glad I didn't shell out the big bucks and watched it at home.