Prince of Persia Review: Our Gaming Geek and Movie Geek Debate

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When you get a Jerry Bruckheimer blockbuster based on a video game, the brains at Techland start to overload. So to review this week’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time spectacular, we’ve called on both gaming geek Evan Narcisse and movie geek Steven James Snyder to hash out the particulars. Surprisingly, they sort of agreed. Behold:

Evan’s Take:

When it came out about seven years ago, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time immediately made its mark as an experience that showed off how the video game medium could mature. Published by Ubisoft, it was a re-imagining of a popular character and series from the early days of computer gaming. Though essentially a reboot, the action/adventure title acknowledged the history behind Prince of Persia, some of which you can read about in my interview with creator Jordan Mechner.

In terms of plot, Sands of Time showed off both story-telling and thematic ambition with its voiceover narration and folkloric influences. The swordfights and acrobatic stunts–running along walls, nimble somersaults and scampering up poles–brought a welcome Tyrone Power derring-do vibe to the action elements, too. But, most of all, the central gameplay mechanic–being able to rewind time at will to recover from mistakes in playing the game–wowed audiences with its attendant technical wizardry. The time-rewind also wove nicely into a clever, meta-aware story about maturity and destiny. Sands of Time became kind of a beloved text and gamers’ hands were wringing when the news broke that Bruckheimer would be producing a big-screen version.

But it turns out, surprisingly, that there’s no reason to worry. In the same way that the Sands of Time game acknowledged its forerunners, the movie nods to its gaming roots. While it’s not exactly the same story as in the game of the same name, The Sands of Time mirrors enough of the plot to seem respectful. The big story elements are still there–the titular mystical sands, an acrobatic hero, a power-hungry royal, the time rewind–and director Mike Newell nests them in a lush desert backdrop that feels appropriately fantastical. The changes that the movie does make–giving the Prince the name of Dastan and adding more of a family to his backstory–add depth to the character. (More at Techland: The top 10 superhero suits of armor)

SoT was primarily an action game where players made the Prince dance across rooms full of enemies and traps, and to do anything less in a movie would feel like a cop-out. Thankfully, Jake Gyllenhaal and his stunt doubles channel the same kind of adrenaline-filled improvisatory movement that the game made its name off of. It doesn’t feel like a cheesy bit of fan service the first time Dastan pulls off that iconic wall-run; it comes across as a natural move for a character to pull off in the world in which he belongs. Likewise for the flashy sword-fighting. It feels less like a formulaic homage than evidence that it understands its source material.

Amidst all the action, PoP also sports a lot of heart. Gyllenhaal’s performance moves convincingly from devil-may-care brawler and devoted son to mourning and reluctant hero. The plummy English accent he affects for Dastan nicely evokes the work of voice actor Yuri Lowenthal in the games. As Dastan’s feisty love interest Tamina, Gemma Atherton isn’t quite as adversarial as in-game girlfriend Farah, but she’s brimming with defiance and beauty, nevertheless.

But, in terms of acting, it’s really Ben Kingsley and Alfred Molina who steal every scene they’re in. It’s so entertaining to watch the false sympathy of Kingsley’s Nazam  that you’re a little disappointed when his schemes get exposed. And, Molina’s turn as an ethically dubious desert opportunist starts off as comic relief but becomes a bit more than that. Kingsley even gets to go toe-to-toe with Gyllenhaal in a few swordfights.

It’s the subtle sense of connection to the game that spawned it that makes PoP work for this gamer. No doubt helped along by having Mechner write the story, Sands of Time shakes off the stigma that comes with adapting a game into a movie. While it takes control away from the player, the movie still communicates what’s so special about the Prince of Persia and his world.

Steven’s Take:

It doesn’t really surprise me that Evan, like so many gamers, approaches Prince of Persia in relation to how well/poorly it builds upon the themes of the games. But for many of us film buffs, we’ll be going in with far less methodical intentions, wanting just one thing: A little bit of escapist, electric fun.

Now I’m not sure how Hollywood keeps screwing it up, but the swashbuckler is a rather simple thing to master. You need some chemistry with the cast, a certain level of punchiness with the script, inventiveness with the visuals and a sharp sense of humor. When I think of bloated adventures like Transformers 2 or Spider-Man 3 or this year’s Robin Hood, it’s the drab and dull tone of it all that strikes me most. I see so many adventure spectacles that play like chores – not just for the characters on the screen, but for the audiences in the seats. My mind races back to Clash of the Titans, with the plodding descriptions, the rambling expository dialogue, the somber tone, and it feels more like a lecture than a Kraken-Smashin’ Marathon…

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But I digress. Evan nailed the plot, so allow me to try and approach the tone. Prince of Persia has a whole lot of Pirates of the Caribbean in it. There’s whimsy and adventure and danger, but a whole lot of winking too. This is what Clash of the Titans should have been, right down to the snappy, seductive editing.

There is a sequence late in the film where, I kid you not, Gyllenhaal’s prince is dueling with Ben Kingsley, trying to keep a magical dagger from being stuck into what is effectively a giant, canyon-sized time machine. Or something like that. I don’t really know – but that’s the beautiful thing, it doesn’t really matter. The boys fight, the space-time continuum hangs in the balance, then Jake jumps across a chasm, slays a sword-swinging assassin who pounces on him and then plants a wet one on the lips of the girl. He saves his own life, the universe, and gets the girl in less than 30 seconds. It’s a blurry, bristling action film made for a gamer’s ADD.

Prince of Persia is above all a triumph of editing. It moves so briskly – and as Evan said, with such surprising flurries of gravity-defying choreography – that it’s hard to get bored. When it does pause for plot development, it’s Gyllenhaal’s serious acting chops that make the whole I-was-framed-into-betraying-my-family theme work. When it stops for romance, Atherton – who I generally think does little more than given airy sounds to dialogue – is effective as the elusive, hard-to-get conquest. When it stops for the supernatural time-traveling special effects, Prince of Persia creates some genuinely dazzling head trips when the dagger is clicked. It’s no small thing, when the sands of time roll backwards, and it’s a genuine visual treat every time we get to see that energy unleashed. (More at Techland: The top 10 games of the year)

But when it speeds up, throwing our young, untested prince into battle as he lays siege to a castle, or into a hand-to-hand scuffle with knife-throwers and ancient uber-warriors, or into that cave where Ben Kingsley wants to achieve world domination, Persia just about gives you whiplash. This isn’t a film that wastes a second, and there’s something about this adrenaline rush that is unabashedly gratuitous. Newell’s got a lot of goodies to throw at you, and he’s not going to bide his time before unleashing the fun.

Honestly, this is the way I like my swashbucklers. I think back to Raiders of the Lost Ark, with its hilarious asides, clashing personalities, supernatural undertones and boiling politics, and I recall feeling the same head-rush with Spielberg’s mania. With Prince of Persia, the politics are those of Iraq, with bad intelligence precipitating an unlawful invasion and a raging insurgence. Hey, that’s how much fun Prince of Persia is: It stands tall as one of the most searing indictments I’ve ever seen of the Iraq War, and yet it never feels tedious or condescending.

There are action films that work as special effects marathons and those that work as character studies, but there’s certainly a place in my catalogue for whiplash wonders like Prince of Persia, which punch the pedal and never give you a second to acclimate to the acceleration. Video game or not, this is a high-voltage first-person-shooter entertainment.

Grade: B+

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