So let’s talk about the Prince of Persia movie. It’s been out for about 2 weeks now.

So I thought it was a great movie. Well executed, and managed to incorporate a surprising number of game elements. Then again I went in with pretty low expectations, thinking this would be yet another game franchise botched by Hollywood, despite the huge backing from Disney. But if there’s anything I’ve learned from watching the comic book movies, it’s that they are two different media. If you separate the two worlds, the film and the source material, you may actually be able to appreciate the movie; and appreciate all the little subtleties they throw in for the fans as well.

The Plot. To avoid spoilers I’ll say this. It’s pretty generic. People want the throne, people do bad stuff for the throne, someone else gets blamed for bad stuff. ’nuff said. Not the deepest plot, but it’s entertaining. I mean were you really expecting some twisty, convoluted, M. Night Shyamalan-esque plot? It’s a good, wholesome story that’s pretty entertaining and moves the movie along. It’s pretty paint by numbers, but I will admit I was a little unsure at who the culprit was. Because at first I was very solid in my assertion, but then I was like mmmm maybe it’s this, but in the end it was who you thought it was. Probably only because I was overthinking it. Anyone else experience a similar change in opinion at who committed those dastardly deeds?

Chesty Jake is Chesty. He did a good job, nothing I wouldn’t have expected the prince to say. I thought he did a great job personifying the prince from the games. Also he did his own stunts. Thumbs up to that. I thought all the chasing scenes, and fighting scenes were very true to the game. Most especially when he tried to get away, because it really incorporated the flow and acrobatic elements of the game into the movie without shoving it into your face.

That’s another thing, while the movie was not a direct port of the game into movie form, I think they did a great job with just incorporating the elements of the game into the movie. Could have been more sand rewinding I think, but it’s not like the game where you keep getting it refilled by killing sand monsters. So I mean they put on that limitation in the movie where I think it was needed, as opposed to needing to be able to rewind time so much in the game where you can die multiple times. Plus a movie about going from room to room, fighting hordes of enemies in said rooms, and solving the occasional puzzle would be pretty boring imo. So I think they did a pretty good job balancing movie plot, with game elements.

What no Fara? That part kind of sucks, but she existed within Tamina pretty well. Just a change of name, still evicted from her home country as essentially taken as a hostage of Dastan’s kingdom. Plus she was easy on the eyes, but scrappy. She’s got spunk. The only thing I probably would’ve enjoyed is (as my girlfriend pointed out) at the end of the movie. Where in the game the prince tells her something that only she knows, they did not do that so much in the movie. Kind of lame. But I mean she obviously knew something was up when he returned the dagger. So maybe all is not lost.

I mean other than the pretty generic plot, I thought it was an entertaining movie that did a great job of capturing the spirit of the game. I realize I’ve said that a lot, but I know if I watched this maybe 4 years ago I would have been outraged. It’s not a book to movie port, it’s not an RPG to film port, it’s not a comic to film port. It’s taking the essence of the game and creating something new, yet related to the original franchise. And this I’ve learned to appreciate. Much like I can appreciate Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, which I was pretty disappointed in when I watched it in high school.

-Evilmanta