This makes it two movie reviews in a row but I’ve been writing about “Prince of Persia” in all these years in the making and in the waiting, even before the production kicked off, so I felt that it was something of an obligation to put a conclusion to the obsession now that I’ve finally watched it. Yes, I’ve finally watched it but not in all its glory! Oh no, in fact Prince of Persia is a rather humble movie for being a Disney/Bruckheimer production. Not necessarily in a bad way though, it keeps things to a minimal level when it comes to an FX extravaganza. But not at the cost of a suffering story. The movie had been promised by the makers of “Pirates of the Caribbean” as something similar for the fans of the trilogy, I have never been a fan of the pirate trilogy (perhaps due to my Johnny Depp allergy) but this I really enjoyed. Despite its stylistic resemblance to the Bruckheimer trilogy. Jake Gyllenhaal is a perfect Prince of Persia if you wanna take the source game prince into account.
The guy also embodies any Disney-made prince charming with his puppy eyes, naive smile and wit! And the chemistry with the princess played by the breathtaking Gemma Arterton works like in a Nobel prize winner’s lab.
In fact the entire cast look the parts, haven’t you always found Ben Kingsley born to do an evil vizier of some sort? And the visual translation of the unique acrobatic prince and other characterizing aesthetics of the game is right there, even though not always fully supported by the cinematography and editing. Except for the spectacular panoramas and the precise close ups other scenes’ focus are all over the place, anywhere but on the subject matter! I have always been a big fan of the Prince of Persia games franchise, in particular the Sands of Time trilogy, so my expectations reached even higher levels when the trailer was released back in November, showing itself to be an exact epitome of the trilogy. However now in retrospect it has proved itself to be a fact with modification! The movie with the same tag-line is only loosely based on the game’s story-line and it is all edited into the few minutes of the trailer. The rest of the movie is completely different material, again not necessarily bad but still completely different, and that was something of a let down for a fan like me. But if you have no expectation of that kind you wont be disappointed with this family-fun and action-packed adventure matinée movie. Just keep in mind that it’s a fable, not an historic account!
