The movie starts off by showing how Gyllnhaal's character, Dastan, was adopted by King Sharaman, ruler of Persia, because he showed some serious jumping skills/courage in the market one day. We then go to current day, where Dastan and his two brothers, Tus (Richard Coyle) and Garsiv (my boy Toby Kebbell from RockNRolla), are leading an attack on a rival kingdom. Dastan does some sweet acrobatic parkour shit and ends up helping his army breach the palace of the rival kingdom.
There they find the hot-ass Princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton) and this weird dagger she seems so fond of. Jake ends up getting a hold of the dagger, not knowing the power it contains (turns back time, ya'll!). Jakey-boy said it best in the scene when he realizes just what the dagger can do, saying "releasing the sand turns back time, and only the holder of the dagger is aware of what's happened. He can go back and alter events- change time, and no one knows but him."
I want to add that, right off the bat, Ben Kingsly seems like he's going to be a real prick. If good times are being had, he's going to be up to no good. He's scheming... look at him, with that eye liner and bald head; What are you up to, Ben? I don't know yet, but we'll get to the bottom of this- just you wait, you son of a bitch!
The part that really got me on Kingsly's case was when Dastan's King father said "Family, the bond between brothers... that is the sword that defends our empire. I pray that that sword remains strong..." and right when he said "brothers" the camera cut to Kingsly (that fuck) and he looked around all nervous... I knew it! I knew it, Ben! You asshole, you're days are numbered and I bet Jake is going to be the one to do it (It was Tus actually)!
So out of nowhere, the King gets killed by a cloak full of acid (Simpson's did it?) and it all gets blamed on Dastan. Jake-sauce and Tamina escape, being trailed the entire way by Garsiv and his band of merry men. Eventually the run into Sheik Amar (Alfred Molina who played Dr. Ock in Spiderman 2), the ruler of a region known as "The Valley of the Slaves," which is a place that is supposed to be treacherous but is actually not all that bad- Molina just doesn't like the Persians and has no interest in paying taxes... hmmm, sounds like a good idea to me.It's here that Tamina tells Dastan that the dagger he has is her responsibility (that's weird, a lady was responsible for something and then fucked it all up by way of Jake Gyllenhaal's muscles), she is the guardian of a divine covenant and the dagger is sacred and that Dastan doesn't understand what's at stake- it's a matter for God's, not man. Which brings up the question: why the fuck does Man have this dagger if it's only for the God's?
*My guess is a few of the God's saw how awesome Jake Gyllenhaal's stunts were and said "fuck it, this dude's cool. Let's give him a weird sword thing that can manipulate time."*
So Dastan, being wanted by all of Perisa, decides to be a bad-ass and head to his fathers funeral (who was the KING of PERSIA, btw, meaning a huge turnout at his funeral) to try and tell his uncle Ben Kingsly about the dagger. Kingsly instead lies to him about how his brothers are all against him, when it's really him who wants everything bad to happen! After a ridiculous fight/escape scene, we cut to Kingsly telling Tus about how Dastan tried to kill him at the dagger meeting, but it (again) was the other way around. Ben's also got this squad of elite fighters, Hassansin's, set up to do his dirty work for him, and they are pretty brutal and precise.
There were a few real strong points in this film, one of them (in my opinion) being the acting of Molina. While he turned on an accent very similar to Johnny Depp's "Jack Sparrow" voice, I thought he did a fine job in the film. Funny and smart, he was in charge and everyone knew it.
So just what is this movie about, really? On one hand: Dissension. Dastan's step-brothers Tus and Garsiv are both vying for the throne (not in a scheming way or anything), but so is Kingly. We don't realize until mid-way through the film that it is really Kingsly behind everything and Dastan's brothers are just unknowing pawns in his master plan.
It's also about videogame to movie adaptation. If Halo is ever going to be made into a film (doubtful), it has to look seriously at the success of other videogames being transferred to the silver screen. Prince of Persia is a great game series, and the film adaptation was exciting and interesting- it couldn't be just like the game, because then the entire film would be Gyllenhaal fighting waves of dude and constantly doing wallflips. I thought the film was a good representation of the games and hope they continue the series.
Another selling point are the stunts in this flick. Lots of really cool flips off of random bars that appear to be everywhere (hey! just like the videogame!), Dastan barely escaping tons of arrow fire and sword play by flipping and sliding all over the shit- if Jake did his own stunts, I'm impressed. There are lots of strange panoramic shots throughout the film, eerily similar to those found in the game.
Penny Rose, the same lady responsible for the costumes in the Pirates of the Caribbean series, was the costume designer for this film, and you could really tell. Everything had an elaborate and intricate feel to it, from set design to costumes- especially costumes. Jerry Bruckheimer produced this bad boy, so it had his stamp on it which is always a good thing.
The DVDs bonus features are also pretty good, showing a nice behind the scenes look at how the film was made. A good variety of the outside scenes were shot in Morocco, but the majority of the film was shot in England at Pine Wood Studios (the largest stage in Europe btw). It's the same studio where tons of 007 films were shot, although I would never make the comparison between this and any Bond movie. Also, we get to watch an interview with Bill River, ostrich race coordinator for the film.
While the movie does seem like a commercial for buff Jake Gyllenhaal, the Prince of Persia videogame series and gnarly parkour stunts, it won me over with a good cast, interesting story line and, well, gnarly parkour stunts. And hot Persian women.
I'd say it's a decent film, an alright adaptation of the video game series, but I do feel that another try is in order- I hope they make a sequel, Lord knows they have enough material to do it.
Overall 3/5
I'd say this was definitely on my watch list this summer but I succumbed to the bad reviews and avoided it. But if Jakey was really doing all his own stunts that would make it worth the watch itself
ReplyDeleteI watched the bonus features and, no, J-Bird didn't do his own stunts. It was the dude (don't know his name) who pretty much made parkour popular. Some Frenchie
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