The Prince of Persia: Blu Ray Review
The Prince of Persia
Rating: M
Released by Disney DVD
Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Dastan, a young street urchin orphan boy who's taken into the Persian royal court at an early age and who comes to love the ruler as if he were his dad.
However, later on as the Persians are laying siege to a city
they believe is hiding weapons which have helped their enemies
(spot the parallel here), Dastan finds himself cast out from the
royal court after he's believed to have assassinated the
king.
Forced into hiding and into an uneasy alliance with Princess Tamina
(a dusky sultry Gemma Arterton) Dastan tries to unravel the
plot.
From the opening chase scene through to the FX laden final scenes,
the problem is this film is relying a little too much on its source
material - and the medium it came from. That is, it feels like it's
a computer game on the big screen.
Scenes are held together by one of three plot devices - either a
fight scene, a chase scene or plot exposition. There's also some
humour thrown in in the form of Alfred Molina's comedy relief Sheik
(and his brilliant ostrich racing - when was the last time you saw
that on screen?) but it feels like less than the sum of its
parts.
It's reasonable family fare but nothing as thrilling as it could
be.
Extras: A chance to take control of the dagger and
go behind the scenes is a nice touch on the Blu Ray release.
Rating: 6/10
