Prince of Persia. Well, this is a video game movie. I'm already doubting myself. But wait, this is directed by Mike newell, who directed one of the Harry Potter movies! And it's produced by Jerry Bruckheimer! And Jake Gyllenhaal and Alfred Molina are in it! I'd put Ben Kingsley in that exclamation, but Bloodrayne prevents me from doing so. Needless to say ,this film has a high pedigree in spite of the source material.Too bad it just doesn't come together like it should have.
The plot is this: a young street child shows extraordinary valor and gets adopted by the King of Persia. When he grows up he helps Persia capture some holy city, where he falls in love with the Princess and must protect her and the Dagger of Time from his treacherous Unlce. It's a lot less confusing than National Treasure or Pirates of the Caribbean, so maybe that's why it felt really pedestrian.
The action sequences are merely decent, sometimes being too fast and sometimes being very obviously stunt doubles. I'd say the action here is overall just entertaining, but not "wow" worthy. Generally that's how the movie ambles on- entertaining, but nothing special. that is, however, until the dialogue and romance steps in.
It's terrible. I hated Gemma Arterton as the stereotypical "liberated" woman cliche, especially in ancient Persia, and couldn't see at all how Prince Dastan could be in love with her. Much of the movie is spent on their witless banter, where they trade insults and inevitably get captured or seperated by various thugs or villains. i wanted to scream "Get moving, Prince! The world's demise is at hands and you stop to banter about what you wear? Seriously, just fight some people!"
Finally, the conclusion to the story was weak. Yeah, the game was pretty weak, too, and made no sense, but it could have been at least somewhat rectified here. It wasn't. So yeah, all in all a pretty average blockbuster that just didn't have enough heart or "OMG" moments to really latch on.
