Prince of Persia (2010)

The story goes something like this: Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal) is an Aladdin-like street urchin who, after a random act of courage, finds himself as the newly adopted son of the king of Persia (Ronald Pickup).  Fifteen years later, after he and his foster brothers Garsiv (Toby Kebbell) and Tus (Richard Coyle) attack the neighboring city of Alamut where Princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton) reigns, Dastan is wrongly accused of murdering the king and turns fugitive.  The rest of the movie depicts his adventures in the sand (and through time) with his new princess travelling companion, Tamina and the mysterious nature of the dagger he now possesses.

I went into this movie with extremely low expectations but exiting the theater, I can’t quite say that it’s bad!  Compared to other video games to film?  Yeah, it isn’t that horrible.  In fact for once its video game qualities were the reasons to SEE it, not the reasons to AVOID it.  Mike Newell’s (HP and the Goblet of Fire) direction manages to pull everything together in a satisfactory manner that is better than your average VG flick.  The script is blah, the acting is meh, – but it isn’t rotten.  Jake Gyllenhaal was yummy as the impossibly buff protagonist, and the video game sequences were stylish and entertaining.  The plot was surprisingly original, well paced and full of lots of fun stuntwork.  I had a good time, no joke.  I’m not sure if I was more entertained by the film or the audience I was with – all of whom were at the edge of their seats with anticipation laughing, screaming, gasping, the whole works – but either way it was a pleasant and enjoyable two hours.  Beware the notable eye-liner infestation on our leading lady and none other than Sir Kingsley.  I’ll probably never see it again but I don’t regret having seen it once.  I’d give a solid 8/10 for entertainment value but when considering all factors I’ll give it a 5/10 overall score.

And heck, it’s gotta be better than The Last Airbender!  Or so I’m told.