Prince of Persia

Mr. K

I'm surprised that there isn't a topic about this already. I saw it last night, quite enjoyed it.

Initially, I didn't like it at all; it seemed a bit limp and directionless. It picks up when

Dastan and Tamina go on the run

. The ending

annoyed me though, using the Sands erase all the bad things that'd happened. I was hoping for a dark ending, but I realise that would've made it less family friendly. Still, too clean and easy for my liking

.

Basically, it's a decent Pirates of the Caribbean-type film. Not brilliant, not terrible. I enjoyed it more than Robin Hood!

speedboatchase

Mr. K wrote: »

I'm surprised that there isn't a topic about this already. I saw it last night, quite enjoyed it.

Initially, I didn't like it at all; it seemed a bit limp and directionless. It picks up when

Dastan and Tamina go on the run

. The ending

annoyed me though, using the Sands erase all the bad things that'd happened. I was hoping for a dark ending, but I realise that would've made it less family friendly. Still, too clean and easy for my liking

.

Basically, it's a decent Pirates of the Caribbean-type film. Not brilliant, not terrible. I enjoyed it more than Robin Hood!

Haven't seen it myself but no real interest - think we've got a massive stinker of a summer on the horizon. Crazy to think that last May we had Star Trek and first of June The Hangover in comparison. With the World Cup in a few weeks the entire June is pretty much a write-off too becauase studios are too afraid to release anything. July looks absolutely packed for that reason but for every potential highlight (Inception, Toy Story 3, A-Team, Knight and Day, The Expendables) there's plenty of what look like absolute crud to over-balance things (Shrek 4, Step-Up 3D, Sorcerors Apprentice, The Last Airbender, Twilight: Eclipse, Karate Kid, Cats and Dogs 2, Grown Ups). Let's hope I'm wrong!

ps. What's the action like in PoP? I was quite interested in the parkour aspects until I seen the trailer and it was just looked like a CGI fest

ziedth

I'm gonna go catch it tomorrow.

I doubt it'll be very good though

constitutionus

went to see it today.

its kinda "meh" TBH.

not BAD, but not terribly memorable either. it feels more like "the mummy" than pirates of the carribean though. its well acted and the effects are good i just get the feeling there was more that couldve been done with the concept.

to be brutally honest the storyline from the original game wouldve been alot more fun than whats ran with here but i suppose that wouldve hit the production costs.

the villains dont really get all that much exposure so when theyre dispatched your not really that impressed but i will say alfred molina was brilliant in it. not that he had much to work with but he's the most enjoyable character in it and i DID like how dastan convinced his brother about the daggers power towards the end.

i like fantasy/ sci fi so i didnt mind going to see it in the cinema but if thats not really your thing you'd probably be better off leaving it till the DVD comes out.

Ivan

speedboatchase wrote: »

Haven't seen it myself but no real interest - think we've got a massive stinker of a summer on the horizon. Crazy to think that last May we had Star Trek and first of June The Hangover in comparison. With the World Cup in a few weeks the entire June is pretty much a write-off too becauase studios are too afraid to release anything. July looks absolutely packed for that reason but for every potential highlight (Inception, Toy Story 3, A-Team, Knight and Day, The Expendables) there's plenty of what look like absolute crud to over-balance things (Shrek 4, Step-Up 3D, Sorcerors Apprentice, The Last Airbender, Twilight: Eclipse, Karate Kid, Cats and Dogs 2, Grown Ups). Let's hope I'm wrong!

ps. What's the action like in PoP? I was quite interested in the parkour aspects until I seen the trailer and it was just looked like a CGI fest

The Last Airbender will be an epic the likes not seen since the days of titans. You heard it here first.

On-topic: I've heard nothing but good things about this movie from gamers and the mundane alike, looking forward to seeing it myself.

jesus_thats_gre

Shambolic movie! One of the characters was just a fat rip off of Jack Sparrow for god sakes!!! F

Mr. K

Ivan wrote: »

gamers and the mundane alike

Non-gamers as "the mundane"...I like it.

Handsome Bob

I found it a bit underwhelming. It's decent and all, just not incredibly exciting, which is something you need in a film like this. I didn't think there was much going on between Atherton and Gyllenhaal, and the film lacks a genuinely menacing villain. Forgettable.

Ridley

constitutionus wrote: »

went to see it today.

its kinda "meh" TBH.

not BAD, but not terribly memorable either. it feels more like "the mummy" than pirates of the carribean though. its well acted and the effects are good i just get the feeling there was more that couldve been done with the concept.

to be brutally honest the storyline from the original game wouldve been alot more fun than whats ran with here but i suppose that wouldve hit the production costs.

the villains dont really get all that much exposure so when theyre dispatched your not really that impressed but i will say alfred molina was brilliant in it. not that he had much to work with but he's the most enjoyable character in it and i DID like how dastan convinced his brother about the daggers power towards the end.

i like fantasy/ sci fi so i didnt mind going to see it in the cinema but if thats not really your thing you'd probably be better off leaving it till the DVD comes out.

Closest to my thoughts. Untapped potential and a hole where the feeling you're watching an epic should go. Good game adaptation and I really want to like it but it's just too easy to punch holes in it. The dialogue and pacing especially. The Dagger and Sands of Time should be the most important thing on screen but they're not really. Reminds me of why I don't care too much for The Two Towers as it felt like the focus was off the One Ring when Fellowship of the Ring is very much about offloading the thing back to Mordor ASAP.

The foreshadowing that's there is blatant (

Ben Kingsley on the poster and reviews saying it clearly had him pinned as the villain anyway but it's not like it was a surprise when he delivers "Do you still have [the dagger]?" and has burnt hands. I wasn't timing but wasn't it about halfway through the movie when his treachery is revealed?

) but the action's not the problem, it's justifying why characters are acting the way they are.

He's had a lifetime to decide to go and erase his nephews from history so why has he fallen? Or was he planning to get the dagger from day one? And why would he reveal himself in public like that? Surely that spy is a simple problem to get rid of in the end?

I thought you'd see that after the credits.

I'd watch a sequel though. Just preferably one that is, I dunno, more focused. Borderline peripheral character got a whole fight scene to

him

self ( ) while the others do nothing? Well, erm, okay then.

dr gonzo

I agree with the general consensus so far(sheep that i am) Its alright, if you liked the game its probably worth a look and in saying that the more i think about the more i realise that as far as games movies go its decent. As far as real films go on the other hand its not great.

timetogetfit

seen it too, only ok but your one is smoking hot

Tusky

I dont know how people are saying its decent and 'ok' rather than terrible. I thought it was utterly dreadful. The storyline is a joke, with everyone explaining what is happening over and over after every plot point. Its climax is a CGI mess. I didnt even think the action was very good, which is inexcusable for a film of this type. Not a patch on the original Pirates. More comparable to Pirates 3 or one of the Mummy sequels.

ViennaShamrock

Tusky wrote: »

I dont know how people are saying its decent and 'ok' rather than terrible. I thought it was utterly dreadful. The storyline is a joke, with everyone explaining what is happening over and over after every plot point. Its climax is a CGI mess. I didnt even think the action was very good, which is inexcusable for a film of this type. Not a patch on the original Pirates. More comparable to Pirates 3 or one of the Mummy sequels.

so all in all you wouldn't recommend it, then?:rolleyes:

I mean I thought about watching it, if it isn't too expensive and I've got time but now I think I'll better leave it:(

constitutionus

Tusky wrote: »

I dont know how people are saying its decent and 'ok' rather than terrible. I thought it was utterly dreadful. The storyline is a joke, with everyone explaining what is happening over and over after every plot point. Its climax is a CGI mess. I didnt even think the action was very good, which is inexcusable for a film of this type. Not a patch on the original Pirates. More comparable to Pirates 3 or one of the Mummy sequels.

four words mate.

"ive seen battlefield earth".

johnny_ultimate

Wow, this film was cack. On two distinct levels:

As a film: Firstly, it was awfully directed and edited - don't know if I've ever seen such a cheesy, painful version of slow motion. The director of photography clearly doesn't know any colour apart from yellow (Persia is hot, we get it). The two leads have no character whatsoever, and their childish insults and flirting for the first hour are painful, belonging in a particularly boring rom-com. It's too busy, with too many characters with little to do. It has very little dramatic flow, with the vast majority of the film seemingly 'I have the dagger' 'No, I do' 'Now I do' 'Damn'. It lacked drama and energy and any kind of forward momentum. The CGI was also amongst the worst I've seen recently, especially in comparison to the rich Arabic setting of the game.

The acrobatic bits were decent, maybe, and some of the ideas presented are moderately interesting. Problem being..

It totally fails as an adaptation of a game. Sands of Time the game was a breath of fresh air, a surprisingly mature and clever game (which, interestingly, made it a failure and led to two tonally uncertain and inferior sequels). The Sands in the game were used to create extremely clever puzzles, and acted as a sensible narrative device (with the Prince wryly commenting on events from the future in voiceover - if you die, he wittily tells the player 'No, no, no. That's not what happened'). The game had much more confidence in exploring the consequences of using the sands - in regards

to death particularly. The final 'twist' of having everything reset was handled with much more poignancy and intelligence in the game

, and far more effective for having characters that were likable. The acrobatics were better, the storytelling more confident, the art design stunning (the film really made very little use out of the stunning setting).

My advice for anyone going to see this is play the game instead. For the same price as the ticket, you can get the game here or here. Games are often criticised as being inferior to cinema, but when a seven year old game can be much more mature and surprising than a cinematic take on the same ideas, that argument becomes much harder to justify.

Sapsorrow

Holy crap did everyone really hate it that much? I went today and I really enjoyed it. I was a big fan of the game though and I happen to fancy the pants of Jake Gyllenhall so watching him all buff and wielding a sword with his shirt ripped open for two hours may have swayed my opinion somewhat I didn't like pirates of the carribean at all, primarily because Kiera Knightly and Orlando Bloom make me want to gouge my own eyes out so I was suprised to find I enjoyed this one so much. Visually it was very entertaining (I loved the choreography) and I liked the overall story, not a work or art of anything but very entertaining all the same.

Liam O

I dunno, I saw it last week and went in with low expectations and quite enjoyed it. I expected it to be rubbish and wasn't a great fan of the game. I seen an interview with Jake at an NBA game and he said it was just a 'fun' movie and I scoffed at that as meaning that it's rubbish but it really is just good fun and a few light hearted moments thrown in there. Not going to win any oscars but not the worst way to spend a couple of hours

conorhal

I thought it was just dire. The plot has no organic development at all. What you get instead is a dull action scene, then everything stops so that somebody can explain the plot (that nobody has bothered to weave into the film) with a some laborious exposition to set up the next dull, poor CGI laden, action scene after which everything will stop for a bit for some more exposition that will explain why Dastan has to fight some Ninja's, who's sole function to the story is the equivalent of a video game 'end of level Big Bad'.
The film is about as much fun as sitting watching somebody play the PS3 game.

pocketvenus

I went to see it last night and have to say I really enjoyed it. The cinema I was in was just about full also mainly guys but there was about 10 of us women.

Ok you have to remember this is a Disney film and aimed at a family audience so the dialogue can reflect this fact but overall I did not find too much fault with it. Jake Gyllenhaal really can pull off an action hero especially as it is his time in such a role and worked well with Gemma Atherton. I enjoyed the CGI sequence and the action scences.

If do not want anything too taxing for the brain and want be entertained well this def is a film to go too.
Hope there is a sequal.

Shryke

I like the games, and I had no expectations. It wasn't my idea to see it in the first place. I came out enjoying it. If anyone is going in expecting a masterpiece I'd judge them harsher than I could the film. It was a bit of fun, which I think is what they were going for.

ziedth

Did anyone else get an assasins creed vibe off off it?

I thought it was grand too, I didn't like the ending but sure Disney and all.

Sapsorrow

ziedth wrote: »

Did anyone else get an assasins creed vibe off off it?

Ya totally but sure you'd expect that really.

johnny_ultimate

ziedth wrote: »

Did anyone else get an assasins creed vibe off off it?

Yeah there were times I thought it was a closer adaptation of that series than a PoP game - particularly the moment where

it did a camera pan around the prince as he stood on a wooden ledge. Would have been perfect if he landed in a pile of hay

. Although, like most things in the film, it's handled with much more style and flair in games :pac:

I'm actually surprised some of you guys liked this. Again, all IMO, but I genuinely thought this was one of the most incompetent, pointless films I've seen in a long time!

Fysh

The sequences involving Dastan on the run were enjoyable, though not exactly a revolution in parkour-style action.

The rest of it...feh. The characters, storyline, "dramatic" moments and cinematography were all pretty generic. In particular the...errr..."chemistry" between Gyllenhaal and Arterton was sufficiently lacking that they may as well have actually had Rule 98 from the Evil Overlord Guidebook scrolling across the bottom of the screen.