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davidnIt's only been twenty years since the release of the first game, but Prince of Persia finally got itself a film. It seems that every time a game-to-film adaptation is released, it looks like it's going to be the one to break through the swamp of their mediocrity, and with Jordan Mechner being involved in this one, I once again had high hopes.
As shown by the title, the game is mostly based on the first game of the second trilogy, in a version of Persia from an alternate reality where most people are suspiciously white and everyone learned to speak English at Oxford. But exactly like that game, it's happy to ignore everything that came before it and just make up its own story instead. This particular greasy-haired Prince is introduced twice - once as an orphan who impresses the King for some reason by having the courage to belt one of his guards with an apple, and then fifteen years later when attacking a holy city in an undercover mission that's presented like Ocean's Eleven. During this raid, somebody is told to guard a mysterious dagger with his life and transport it somewhere safe, then immediately loses it when he is horse-jacked by the Prince, and the plot continues mostly familiarly from there.
The game's running jumping climbing elements all feature prominently without being... obviously pointed out too much, and other elements from the games are there as well such as in the Last Crusade-style temple and Mr Whippyswords near the end, a boss in all but name. Throughout all this, it isn't afraid to have fun with itself, but there are a couple of missed opportunities where you expect more dialogue but a scene instead just... ends pointlessly. There are also moments in between the loads of fighting when it suddenly decides that it does want you to take it seriously after all, and it falls a bit flat trying to do so. It's a warning sign that there were a few laughs when they weren't expected - a couple in places where someone says something threatening and the crowds around them then all go "Oooooooooh" like a fight's about to start in the playground, and in particular, any scene where the two main characters were hovering around each other about to kiss provoked much hilarity. There's also a character who runs an ostrich racetrack and talks about government conspiracies and taxes in parallel to modern America - something that unfortunately just reminded me of the massive anachronism that was the way that Maid Marian was presented.
I really liked the effects that were put into the time rewinding, and was rather disappointed that it wasn't used more - perhaps they were afraid to make it too central so as not to overuse it. A while ago, when I happened to see Nicolas Cage frowning around on Next on television, I said that if Prince of Persia handled its time rewinding like that I'd be very happy - and it sort of did, but I wasn't expecting it to take my suggestion quite so literally and end in almost exactly the same way as well. Though I was prepared to accept it this time because it didn't feel quite as much of a cop-out.
There's a much-anticipated milestone in game-to-film conversions, when someone will eventually make a really good one and they'll suddenly be seen as potential legitimate films in their own right rather than coming out under a sort of cursed cloud from the start. Even though I was hoping once again, I've got to admit that this isn't it. But it's another incremental improvement, and one that might at least nose its way into the middle of "all right" territory.
As shown by the title, the game is mostly based on the first game of the second trilogy, in a version of Persia from an alternate reality where most people are suspiciously white and everyone learned to speak English at Oxford. But exactly like that game, it's happy to ignore everything that came before it and just make up its own story instead. This particular greasy-haired Prince is introduced twice - once as an orphan who impresses the King for some reason by having the courage to belt one of his guards with an apple, and then fifteen years later when attacking a holy city in an undercover mission that's presented like Ocean's Eleven. During this raid, somebody is told to guard a mysterious dagger with his life and transport it somewhere safe, then immediately loses it when he is horse-jacked by the Prince, and the plot continues mostly familiarly from there.
The game's running jumping climbing elements all feature prominently without being... obviously pointed out too much, and other elements from the games are there as well such as in the Last Crusade-style temple and Mr Whippyswords near the end, a boss in all but name. Throughout all this, it isn't afraid to have fun with itself, but there are a couple of missed opportunities where you expect more dialogue but a scene instead just... ends pointlessly. There are also moments in between the loads of fighting when it suddenly decides that it does want you to take it seriously after all, and it falls a bit flat trying to do so. It's a warning sign that there were a few laughs when they weren't expected - a couple in places where someone says something threatening and the crowds around them then all go "Oooooooooh" like a fight's about to start in the playground, and in particular, any scene where the two main characters were hovering around each other about to kiss provoked much hilarity. There's also a character who runs an ostrich racetrack and talks about government conspiracies and taxes in parallel to modern America - something that unfortunately just reminded me of the massive anachronism that was the way that Maid Marian was presented.
I really liked the effects that were put into the time rewinding, and was rather disappointed that it wasn't used more - perhaps they were afraid to make it too central so as not to overuse it. A while ago, when I happened to see Nicolas Cage frowning around on Next on television, I said that if Prince of Persia handled its time rewinding like that I'd be very happy - and it sort of did, but I wasn't expecting it to take my suggestion quite so literally and end in almost exactly the same way as well. Though I was prepared to accept it this time because it didn't feel quite as much of a cop-out.
There's a much-anticipated milestone in game-to-film conversions, when someone will eventually make a really good one and they'll suddenly be seen as potential legitimate films in their own right rather than coming out under a sort of cursed cloud from the start. Even though I was hoping once again, I've got to admit that this isn't it. But it's another incremental improvement, and one that might at least nose its way into the middle of "all right" territory.
