#Prince of persia review movie
#Prince of persia review full

He's noble, smirky and good in a scuffle, but that's about the depth of it. Gyllenhaal, he is sadly given no character to play. It is mildly diverting enough and features some killer comic relief by Alfred Molina, as a tax-evading Sheik, but there's hardly a scene - let alone a character - worth revisiting in a sequel. Bad news for Mickey, 'Prince' is not that franchise.

#Prince of persia review movie

It turns out that much more nefarious things are in order revolving around a mystical dagger that can turn back time courtesy of some magical sand (yeah, that's as tough a sentence to write as it is to read).Д«ut c'mon, this is a Disney movie based on a video game and, above all, it's a Hail Mary by the Mouse House to kick-start another franchise, a la ' Pirates of the Caribbean'.

The cheeky script - by Boaz Yakin, Doug Miro and Carlo Bernard - has some fun winkingly setting up the siege as a search for a hidden cache of (ok, I'll say it) weapons of mass destruction. This skill (which is really, aside from the title, the only tie to the video game) comes in pretty handy when sacking a neighboring city. Though not of royal genes, Dastan proves to be an inexplicably wily fighter, bouncing off walls and climbing armaments like some proto-Parkour master. Dastan is raised alongside his two royal brothers (Toby Kebbell and Richard Coyle, trying to be distinguishable) and their stoic uncle, played by Ben Kingsley (in case you're wondering if the character's going to be good or bad in the end). All the characters speak in varying British accents so, with the exception of a cool-looking ancient map during the opening credits, don't look for a history lesson here. Gyllenhaal plays Prince Dastan, an orphan adopted by the Persian King Sharaman (Ronald Pickup). Nor do I remember the main character resembling Jake Gyllenhaal, but so be it. Now, I don't remember any 'Sands of Time' in the original 'Prince' game. Expecting a quality film from a movie based on a video game is as foolish as making the movie to begin with. The next in line for that dubious distinction is my beloved 'PoP' with 'Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time'. Then, of course, they're adapted into action movies. Nowadays (I'll stop with the fogey-speak soon), video games are virtually indistinguishable from action movies. And we didn't ask for much more, in those days. Finishing the game meant endless combinations of running, jumping, dodging, and more jumping. You had to have someone guard your Mac Classic while you ran to the dining hall to wolf down a quick meal. In those days (as much as I hate to sound like Grampa Simpson, in this case I have no choice), you couldn't even save your game (really!).

#Prince of persia review full

In the interest of full disclosure: I was completely addicted to the first 'Prince of Persia' video game.