Prince of Persia wants Dastan to be like Jack Sparrow, but it fails to understand why Sparrow is charming. A grin, an occasional witticism, and a British accent do not a charming leading man make. It's charming the way the Prince (who goes nameless in the game) frames the narrative as if he were telling it as a story so that when you "die" he can go "No, that's not how it happened." Gyllenhaal lacks even a fraction of that charm. Granted, the video game-like most action-adventure titles-doesn't do much in the way of characters. You'll still be impressed by what you see in the movie, but I think gamers will be anxious to get home and switch on Assassin's Creed II. Play the game or one like it and you'll see what I mean.
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They're fun to watch, but why watch them when you can play them at home? There's an interactive thrill the games provide that the movie can't match. The only other minor victory (and the fact that I'm counting a cohesive story for this film as a "victory" is beyond sad) is the parkour scenes. It's one that goes from plodding to mean to outright stupid as the film progresses, but you can follow it from point A to point B. So to be fair, Prince of Persia has a plot.
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He learns the dagger runs on special sand that can turn back time for a full minute, but then has to run the dagger back to Tamina's city before Nizam can unleash its true power and accidentally destroy the world. Then Dastan's uncle Nizam (Kinsley) has the prince inadvertently murder the King, and Dastan goes on the run with Tamina in tow for some reason. During the battle, Dastan acquires a sacred dagger that Princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton) is sworn to protect (she's not good at her job). So Dastan doesn't have royal blood but it's okay because he's got crazy parkour skills and uses his can-do attitude, wits, and winning smile to take over an entire city while his dumb brothers are trying a direct assault. In Prince of Persia, Persian means British. I can understand (if not agree with) the decision to cast a name like Ben Kingsley as the antagonist, but the King and his two sons aren't name actors, but they're white anyway (don't let Toby Kebbell's brown-face fool you). The conceit of having the King adopt the clearly non-Persian Gyllenhaal would be a nice way of dodging the racism problem except no one in the Persian royal family is played by an Iranian actor. The King adopts Dastan and fifteen years later he's now a prince of Persia and is played by Jake Gyllenhaal. Over the years, “Prince of Persia” became a huge success on multiple gaming platforms, spawned sequels and this Friday in the United States, the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced movie starring Gyllenhaal in the title role hits theaters.īut it wasn’t until 2003 that new technology enabled Mechner to bring his true vision of Prince Dastan to life with fleshed-out characters and 3D environments.Dastan is a street kid who impressed the King of Persia one day through his mixture of heroics and crazy parkour skills for a ten year old. “At the time, I was watching movies like ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ and the 1940 ‘Thief of Baghdad’ and I wanted to get the spirit of those types of films in the game,” said Mechner. In 1987, Jordan Mechner released his adventure “Prince of Persia” for Apple II computer users, pushing video game animation forward by using a new technology called rotoscoping in which he taped his brother wearing white clothes jumping and sword fighting then replicated those movements for his game. Cast member Jake Gyllenhaal waves at the premiere of "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" at the Grauman's Chinese theatre in Hollywood, California May 17, 2010.