‘Prince of Persia’ Settles for Mediocrity
Most people do not walk into the movie theater expecting a video game adaptation to be a cinematic masterpiece, and with perfectly good reason. This genre has a tendency to alienate fans of the game franchise by mucking up the hero’s story through forced plot and dialogue. Ultimately this takes away the excitement gamers had imagining that they were living this protagonist’s life. These films usually turn off regular viewers as well due to their narrow subject matter. People unfamiliar with the games usually have very little interest in film adaptations of them.
Prince of Persia is certainly not an award-winning movie but it’s also not the worst adaptation ever. It clearly understands that bringing these characters to life requires creating fantasy through over-the-top action and special effects. Like other films of the genre though Prince of Persia does not attempt to be more than a “what you see is what you get” kind of experience which is a bit of a let down.
Set in the ancient world against the backdrop of the mighty Persian empire, our film focuses on Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal), one of three sons belonging to King Sharaman (Ronald Pickup). Dastan was not born with royal blood but instead he was adopted by the king as a boy. After watching a charming display of the peasant’s bravery, the king was moved to take the youngster under his wing.
While traveling through the desert, Dastan and his brothers discover intelligence from their uncle Nizam (Ben Kingsley) that the holy city of Alamut is providing weapons to Persia’s enemies. Based on this information Dastan and his brothers attack and raid the city. Dastan makes a bold play for the walls using his courage and acrobatic skills, and as a result he is allowed to claim a special knife he finds as his prize. Afterward the young soldier is asked by his brothers to escort Tamina (Gemma Arterton) the princess of Alamut back to their home in Nasaf.
When Dastan returns to Nasaf, King Sharaman is murdered under mysterious circumstances with Dastan seemingly possessing the smoking gun. Instead of accepting certain death, he is forced to run with Tamina at his side. She seems to have little sympathy for the prince and makes every attempt to lose him. In the process of defending himself, Dastan makes the amazing discovery that this dagger he possesses gives him the power to turn back time in his favor.
From there he jumps to the realization that those who betrayed him are after this mystical weapon. Once she is aware Dastan understands the knife’s power, Tamina explains that combining this dagger with a special place in Alamut called The Sands of Time allows the bearer to turn back time as far back as he wants. Quickly Dastan decides he must clear his name and stop his father’s murderer from acquiring the dagger. He reluctantly teams up with the princess to protect The Sands of Time from evil.
The uneasy truce between Tamina and Dastan creates a wacky sort of romantic comedy element to this film. Both of them seem to hate each other vehemently yet there’s a strange sort of witty banter between them with just a little bit of Disney approved innuendo. In this way Prince of Persia is a funnier version of Clash of the Titans, because it has some of the humor Clash attempted to have and failed miserably at, plus it also has actress Gemma Arterton who played the love interest for Sam Worthington’s Perseus. To the writers’ credit they establish a good tension between the characters that they do not spoil with physical interaction too early in the movie.
Alfred Molina completely steals the show as the master thief Sheik Amar that Dastan and Tamina meet in their travels. He delivers his lines with a sarcastic tone that’s absolutely hilarious and he uses the full range of facial expressions to make his small part a larger one. In complete contrast to this Jake Gyllenhaal is horribly miscast as Prince Dastan. Even though his British accent is solid, Gyllenhaal looks silly all bulked up and scruffy. His boyish face conflicts with the scruffy appearance, and his normal clean-cut hair does not look believable as dirty even at its shoulder length.
Action sequences using parkour style stunts like those present in the Prince of Persia video game make for some entertaining chase scenes, however any up close fights are a jumbled mess of shaky close angle shots and quick cutting. Many times it’s difficult to determine who is hitting who, as well as what exactly is happening between them, until you get a wider shot of the action.
Prince of Persia is your standard video game movie because it’s more about the hype of adapting the game than producing something that is fun and inventive; it is satisfied with mediocrity. Its forced plot and bland dialogue outside the banter between Tamina and Dastan, makes you feel like the actors were going through the motions so that they could get this one in the can.