An epic adventure in all things nerdy.

(Plus some zombies.)

Monday, June 7, 2010

Prince of Persia


So I went to see Prince of Persia tonight, if only to prove myself right in assuming it would be horrible and a disgrace to the video game series. Well, I've never been more satisfied to be wrong about a movie, it was actually pretty decent overall. I know a lot of you gamers were disappointed in the casting of this movie, and my inner culture nerd cried a little bit at the lack of anything resembling an actual Persian in this movie, but inaccuracies aside, still okay. Not amazing, but a pretty good, all-around average action movie. It's saving grace was the amazing stunts and parkour-style choreography, some of the roof-hopping chase sequences were absolutely incredible. They could probably have just made 2 hours of some scruffy looking guy clambering all over buildings and jumping into hay wagons and called it Assassin's Creed the Movie, I'd watch it. Other than the movie being meh, it was also pretty predictable, but as it was pointed out to me, when you go into it knowing the movie's about time travel and important people start dying, there's really only so many ways it can end. I just can't believe how many scenes there were with Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arteron almost kissing there were, I mean really. I wish I knew more about the game series to comment on it's accuracy, but from what I know, there's really no way something from Disney could have done a revolutionary video game franchise proper justice. Lately, they've been bastardizing my childhood with the rumors about the new Spiderman so they're officially on my bad side.




Movie averageness aside, I've had the bizarre, unfortunate luck of being in a theater not once, but twice, this week alone, with a crying kid. First time was a theater up in D.C. when I saw Iron Man 2 (great sequel, but I didn't feel it necessary to blog about it and tell everyone since you all probably already know and I saw it pretty late for it to be news) and the theater actually cheered when a dozen people got up and had to get the manager to remove the lady and her kid. Tonight it was a family with like 6 kids, one of them was a crying baby and the other was this toddler that kept running up and down the aisles and stopping at our seats to stare at us for some reason. Seriously people, you're responsible (or not) enough to have children, you may be able to tune them out just from being around them 24/7, but the rest of us don't have that luxury. Ok, end rant.

This looks like a pretty good year for summer blockbusters! I'm so excited for Avatar: The Last Airbender. Not to mention A-Team, and I'm probably gonna go see Despicable Me, too, being the huge Steve Carell fan I am. I have mixed feelings about Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, as it has Michael Cera in it (ugh), but also looks like a genuinely unique story and the possibility for some really great action scenes.

6 comments:

  1. Prince of Persia has to be the worst film I've seen all year, which made me quite sad. I knew it would be bad.... but really? It was so horribly predictable and the script as shocking! It tried to make us laugh, and failed. It tried to make us tense, and failed. It tried to make us feel for the characters, and failed. I just thought it was without substance for the most part...

    However, I do agree with you that the rooftop chase scenes a la Assassin's Creed were quite fun to watch, even if the action was all jerky cameras and slow motion. I don't regret the £4 I paid to go and see it, but I expected a little more, especially from Jake Gyllenhaal, I mean... he did Jarhead! What happened man? What happened?

    Enjoyed reading your post anyway, just thought I'd put in my two cents, maybe generate some discussion...

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  2. I've been trying to think of a good video game that was turned into a good movie, and I keep coming up blank. I've been told by friends who actual fans of all such movies that it is an acquired taste.

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  3. @Greg: I've had this same discussion. I came up with Resident Evil, Advent Children, and Silent Hill. They were all pretty good.

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  4. admit it : Gemma Arteron is HOYTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT XD

    and yeah cry babies are very annoying in theaters lol

    hope it doesnt stop you from the idea of having kids in the future though lol sigh...........XD

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  5. PS: the only good Resident evil movie was the second one..........others (including the up coming 4th one (search on youtube) sucks and will suck lol)

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  6. Silent Hill is about the only half decent game->film translation. And even then, it's not a patch on Silent Hill 2. Final Fantasy: Spirits Within was quite good too, but I don't think it had anything to do with the games.


    Gemma Arterton is gorgeous, but she hasn't made a half decent film yet, Wuthering Heights might change that.

    The fella who sits opposite me at work said he was surprised at how good Prince of Persia was, both as a game adaptation and a Disney film.

    My memories of Prince of Persia extend as far getting bitten in half by traps and falling off platforms.

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