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2 Stars

Not a bad try at mashing together the fun of the Mummy movies and the mythology of the Pirates of the Caribbean films, unfortunately it simply wasn’t enough. Prince of Persia is fun at times, but never once stops to make sure everything makes sense. Lots of running and jumping as in the game, Jake Gyllenhaal is believable in the role and seems to be the right choice. The movie doesn’t support him though, consisting mainly of action sequence after action sequence (this is a Bruckheimer film after all). That leaves very little time to reveal any plot.

The film centers on a magical dagger that can make time move backwards. Cool idea, but not well planned out for a movie center piece. This can be a real problem with bringing video games to the big screen. When to re-write and when to take the game’s objectives as they are. The game is interactive which means the viewer is connected in some way or another, but imagine sitting in a theater and watching someone play the game for 2 hours. That’s exactly what Prince of Persia serves up.

Director: Mike Newell
Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, Ben Kingsley