Movie Review - Prince of Persia

Prince of Persia

Staring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, Ben Kingsley, Alfred Molina, Ronald Pickup, Richard Coyle (OMG! Jeffrey from Coupling!!!!)

Premise: The king of Persia adopts a young boy after seeing him do a courageous deed. Fourteen years later, his adopted son is on campaign with his two brothers (the king's true sons) and the king's brother. Having obtained information from a spy that the holy city of Alamut is forging weapons for their enemies, Tus, as the brother in charge and heir to the throne, decides to attack the city despite his father's orders not to do so. Dastan ignores his brother's wishes and attacks the city from the side to minimize casualties on both ends. When he accidentally ends up with an unusual dagger, he gets thrown into a cyclone of treachery and mystery, as he is branded a murderer and traitor to the realm.

Review: Okay, I better get this off my chest now cause I can see it disrupting my attempt at a review if I don't. :P

Prince Tus is played by Richard Coyle. Didn't know he was in this movie! Loved, loved, loved Richard Coyle as Jeffrey in the British comedy by Stephen Moffatt's (who's done some of the BEST new Dr Who episodes and is now in charge!!!) Coupling! And he's got long hair! He looked GREAT! But every time his character chose badly all I could hear was Jeffry's mother going "Ohhhh Jeffrey" in her deep disapproving tones in my head. ROFL! Totally awesome to see him again! (And on a totally random side note (did warn you all!) just saw on IMDB Mr Coyle is playing Ludwig Von Lipwig in a TV rendition of Terry Pratchett's "Going Postal" - How totally awesome!!!! Now if I could just get a hold of it to see it...) Wheee!

Ahem...back to the review... Prince of Persia was a nice, action filled romp! The back and forth play between Dastan and Tamina were pretty good. Sheik Amar was a hoot. Beautiful scenery, cities, buildings. Tons of acrobatics. I've not played the original game, but it definitely had the feel of one here and there as our hero jumps from building to building, flips, runs over the tops of camels, and other fun bits. Even a section was very reminiscent of the game Assassin's Creed (though for all I know that game (which the one scene and the activation chamber make me soooo dizzy - the game not the movie - making it hard for me to play...) took it from them instead. Whatever the case, there's loads to see and appreciate. The ostrich races were too funny.

Special effects were great. Some of the baddies were just creepy. And what they did with the snakes? Pretty darn cool. Loved the sand devils mode of transport for those guys - just a nice touch of mysticism there.

Any major surprises in plot? No. But then this isn't that kind of movie. Just a fast paced good time. Though the switch at the end did seem to almost come out of nowhere. Did not fit with the facts we'd been given up to that point. I may have missed something though. Still totally worth it for the action antics. Acting was pretty good too!

Rating: 4 out of 5.