I saw “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time,” and wasn’t completely disgusted. OK, OK, I’ll say it: it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. While it WAS typical Bruckheimer fare (splashy, unrealistic action sequences, cheesy dialogue, etc.), this one had most of the panache of the original “Pirates of the Caribbean.” The action sequences were worth the time spent watching them, even though they were obviously the end result of some nice effects and a lot of time in the editing room. They were balanced fairly well with the rest of the film, and they weren’t heavy-handed at all, but some of the scenes where time was shifting were a little clumsy and our hero was clearly a CGI. The performances were better than one would expect, given the high school dialogue. Jake Gyllenhaal delivered his lines with aplomb, and smoothly rose above very average writing. He is clearly the heir apparent to Orlando Bloom, as the dreamy-eyed street urchin with the heart of a knight (or king), destined to win the girl and the day. In fact, he showed something in this film that he hasn’t shown in anything else I’ve ever seen him in: charisma. He’s a decent actor (ever seen “Brothers”?), but he’s not the most emotive dreamboat. Gemma Arterton worked nicely with Gyllenhaal, even if she wasn’t as able to overcome her character’s writing. (She is super-hot, though, which goes a long way in these kinds of movies – kinda like anything with Megan Fox.) The show was stolen, however, by Alfred Molina, who was hilarious as the scoundrel who eventually comes to the aid of our hero. Even Sir Ben Kingsley seemed to get into his role a bit, showing a bit more liveliness than he has in many of his recent roles. For a movie based on a video game geared toward 8-to-13-year-olds, it was OK. One very redeeming quality was the way it played out at the end. These kinds of movies all have fairly obvious outcomes, but this one was actually pretty creative. While I usually leave these movies with a sense of “Oh, big surprise there, didn’t see THAT coming,” I was pleased with how everything kind of came together. That tells me that someone actually put a little thought into the writing and didn’t rely on pretty faces and special effects to tell the story. If you’re looking for something fun in the veins of “Pirates of the Caribbean,” then this one’s for you. $3 06/06/10
Posted on: Sun, 25 May 2014 22:47:31 +0000
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