In 1989 Jordan Mechner created a little platforming adventure game called Prince of Persia. A swashbuckling affair full of acrobatics and sword play set in ancient Persia. It’s a game I spent a great deal of time with as a child. It would spawn a handful of sequels before the series received a major reboot in 2003 with the release of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.
Jake Gyllenhaal works wonderfully as the wise cracking Prince and its obvious he trained up for this film. Not sure how much of the parkour style stunt work was him and how much was doubles, but it all looked very smooth and seamless. He also has great chemistry with Gemma Arterton who plays the feisty and beautiful Princess Tamina. However as much as these two shine the movie was really stolen by the great Alfred Molina in what is essentially a bit part support role. In all honesty I can’t remember a single one of the Prince’s wise cracks, but several of Molina’s lines are still echoing in my head and making me smile. Rounding out the cast is the always excellent Ben Kingsley who plays the sinister and slightly mad Nizam, the King’s brother and Prince’s uncle. I’m not sure if it was to match the accents of the other cast members or what but Gyllenhaal does put on a fairly effective British accent in this film that was a little odd at first.
The basic plot follows the young Prince who comes into possession of a mystical dagger that can reverse time just as he is framed for his father’s murder. With Princess Tamina in tow he sets off to prove his innocence and then, as the secrets of the dagger unfold, to save the world. It’s not an incredibly original story, pulling liberally from both the games it’s based upon and the stories of the Arabian Nights, but it’s a fairly well told tale. A nice mix of action and humor and very well paced.
Visually the movie looks great, the majority of the action scenes are minus and major CGI, relying on tradition stunt work which I thought was an excellent choice. The areas where CGI was used looked good and the special effects for the time reversal looked very cool.
Hollywood and the video game industry have always had a tumultuous relationship. You’d think that with both being visual story telling mediums that they’d go hand in hand. But for some reason adaptations between the two rarely work. That said I think this was the best video to film adaptation I’ve seen. Even without that caveat its a decent action/adventure flick. And between the stunts and the special effects its definitely one I’d recommend be seen at least once on the big screen. Its an enjoyable romp and I’ll be sure to pick it up on its Blu-Ray release.