Now yes this is a movie based on a video game, and if we look at past game to movie send offs there really isn't much hope for this one now is there. Weeeeell not so fast. Now I will be honest, I have not played a single prince of persia game. I just didn't have the time I knew for a fact that those were long platforming games that for the most part unlike RPG's were gonna be long hauls between check or save points. But the storyline I completely understood. This was the story they started on the cd/dvd generation of platforms. I remember seeing the game trailers the visuals were stunning, the game play was less straight forward and added the puzzle solving into the game play without making it the central focus of the level, sometimes it was just how you got from point a to point b.
Now I know some of you will say well it's just another in a long line of movies that uses free running, and well to be honest no it isn't this is actually the beginner of all that free running. From the first Prince of persia game on the mac this was about free running. You had to pay attention to where you were going and consider how you wanted to get there or else ya butt was toast. Again never played them but I did like an aspect they added to the gaming genre, not just causality but pathfinding.
Okay enough about the game on to the movie. The movie is about Dastan, a young orphan boy from the streets who because of an act of supreme nobility captured part of the heart of the king so he was adopted and grew up in the royal palace. As the younger brother of the two blood princes he often(as is often the case when heroes in most movies) rushes in head first to prove to both himself and others that he is worthy of the blessing he was given. Dastan is a formidable fighter but is less of a bruiser and more athletic think more ninja or jedi like that knight or barbarian. In a battle to take the Holy city of Alamet Dastan comes into possession of an interesting artifact with the ability to turn back time, no more then a minute(which if I am not mistake was the maximum amount of time the game would allow you to run back). But in this minute only the holder of the dagger would know what happened. Now while at first you might think this is kind of useless, in a fight this could be the difference between life and death. You would know exactly what your enemy had in store for you, where a potential trap might be, where an ambush was coming from. And the best part, because only you knew what was about to happen you could pretend to be caught unawares and while exposing a true enemy for what he is and yet would take little to no damage for it.
And yes Dastan has many instances of using it for just those purposes. You see many in the trailer but there are more. And while I am thinking of pointing out a couple of cultural miscues, then again they really don't take away from the movie. It gives you a look into a bit of the culture of what is now the middle east that we have heard similar tales too but really haven't been told(at least in a real life movie) with as many stunning visuals. I think if Disney ever decides to also do Aladdin in a real life movie Prince of Persia will be their blue print because Dastan shares many similarities to Aladdin both street urchins, flexible, acrobatic, quick witted. The real main difference is Dastan seems to be tongue tied around women and Aladdin he ain got that problem. I did not check the box office for this movie yet(I might) and as I am not a huge fan of the game my expectations were not as.... wait let me stop and put out a brief disclaimer
Around last year sometime there was a trailer out for a movie that ended up being prince of persia that was unpolished, gritty and basically looked like it was a fan film or a soon to be straight to video flick. When I saw that trailer if you asked me then how was PoP gonna do I would have told you it was gonna be wack and another blow against good video game movies, not unlike some of the early comic book fare was to that genre.Okay now that I have said that I did not have high expectations for the movie last year, again not a big fan of the game and while I do love cultural stories that have more to do with just europeans and western mythology I was worried that this game to movie translation would not live up to its calling. Ladies and gentleman I stand up to applaud the cast and director it proving me wrong and sticking my big foot in my fat mouth. This movie rocked(notice how I ain really brought up much along the lines of plot points there is a reason for that, if I did it would really ruin the movie. This is one of those stories where you really have to pay attention to every single detail or else you will get turned around and lost), while I figured out who the main bad guy was early in the film(mainly because well um 9 out of 10 times in his last like umpteen movies if ben kingsley is in it he is the damn bad guy) I was not sure who if any his accomplices were amongst the other main characters. I mean usually in these movies the main bad guy never acts alone, he always has some powerful accomplices. And in this movie his accomplices or lack of certain accomplices was a big surprise(wait did I just not tell you a damn thing, watch the friggin movie what I just say, did I not just say if I give out plot points it ruins the film yeesh).
And I really love the ending, damn um hmmm well see this is tricky I can't talk about what I loved about the movie because if anybody reading this(yeah yeah what are the odds but just in case somebody googles Prince of Persia reviews and my blog comes up) before they go see it I don't want to spoil it. The entire cast did a great job, and whats up with doc ock being in like almost every movie coming down the pike this year. I'm loving it I think him and Zoe must be having a contest to see how many movies they can get out this year.
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