So yesterday evening I went to see the Prince of Persia: Sands of time movie adaptation...
Once more, I had to endure during the pre-screening the A-Team movie trailer.
Again that awful trailer...
Man... everytime it gets worse... I'm starting to learn every single goddamn shot & dialogue of that trailer...but my brain shuts totally down during this trailer....and I go into zombie mode...
Strangely, after being forced to watch it so many times, I'm starting to find it funny and laugh stupidly because of it...
Damn you hollywood!!
Like I said before, in Switzerland, and most Europe, trailers aren't attached to movies because of their distributor but rather attached by the movie theatres for a certain period of time. And it seems like Pathé Theatres are trying to sell the A-Team movie to the public a bit much... They already changed all the other trailers before and after this one, but still, they're keeping this trailer around!!...
Anyways...
Then the movie started...
"Finally! How did this Prince of Persia movie came out?"
Aaaaand Ironman 2 started playing... WTH???
Error..? Were we in the correct hall?
Something that didn't happen to us in a very looong time, they started screening the bad flick!
huh.. They could have at least offer us popcorns or drinks for this!
After a little delay, the correct movie was finally aired!
Now on to the movie...
I'm a big fan of Jordan Mechner's work and the Prince of Persia series.
I love the original, liked the sequels, was okay with the rebooted Sands of time series and adored the latest reimagining.
Want some proof? Here's your proof! The original trilogy, the second trilogy, the new one and the original graphic novel!
I think I'm in some capacity of talking about the quality of this movie adaptation : P
Afterall, I've been playing PoP for some years now, not just from the PS2 era like some kids!
The screenplay was made by Jordan Mechner, and it shows!
It was pretty smartly adapted into an epic 2+ hours movie.
The movie is called "Sands of Time" but it wasn't trapped into this single gaming experience. And that why I liked this movie.
Let's be honest, any single game of the SoT trilogy couldn't have been made into a blockbuster movie and should have to! It works as a gaming plot-device but I wouldn't have liked it. Plus it would kinda be insulting to long time PoP fans or fans of the latest Prince!
The movie kinda mixed up a bit of each prince.
The story went back to its roots, with this movie Prince, Dastan, being an orphan from the streets, running around and jumping from roof to roof. Very PoP1 and 2. The young Dastan was even wearing white clothing not too different from the Megadrive cover of the first game or the ingame Prince of the original DOS and MAC game! Nice tribute there!
The movie wasn't as Arabian Nights as I was expecting. Not much magical/blue skies nighty/mystical. Adios to the sands monsters of Sands of Time. But it still followed pretty well the concept of the game SoT. The plot of the game serves as basis to the movie, in the background, but many elements from both the PoP Graphic Novel (a recent AMAZING comic from Mechner's own mind) and the 7th PoP (Prince of Persia 2008/Tree of Life). Such as the interaction between the movie own princess Tamina (Elika? is that you?!) and Dastan, the feeling and narration of the movie specially seemed very inspired by the graphic novel. Not that surprising since both were developed by Jordan Mechner.
The music didn't remind me of any specific game, which is natural since the composer probably didn't try to listen to the game's soundtrack nor had to refer to it. It's your classic epic blockbuster stuff. But the more calm and arabian music, particulary in the desert scenes and some running around pieces reminded me a bit of Prince of Persia 3D. Not intentionally, but they've probably both used the same kind of references.
I found this Dastan a lot more likable and fun than the SoT/Warrior Withint/Two Thrones Prince!
And that's because of were the movie used the more references from, not from the SoT trilogy from which it may appear (during the assault/siege scenes, Dastan was wearing the exact same costume as the WW Prince!) but from the 2008 Prince of Persia! He was even wearing most of the time something quite similar to that Prince! The blue and red scarf! A gauntlet on the left arm (albeit, without the claws)!
Finally the story was pretty fun and entertaining and the action pretty epic, but I wouldn't expect less from Jerry Bruckheimer and co. Casting pretty good.
(loved the Princess btw :'3)
It's a great flick and a good popcorn blockbuster!
Oh yes, and if I'd say the movie was 50% PoP (A bit PoP1&2, a little bit PoP3, a lot SoT trilogy and another big chunk of PoP2008), the rest of the movie was definitely 50% Assassin's Creed.
The way the action and parkour scenes were done, the hole city itself, how it was designed, the way Dastan attacked the guards at the very beginning... There even was an eagle eye/synchronisation scene!!
And they had the league of hassassins worked in this movie as well (using the same kind of weapons and techniques as Ezio and Altair??)!
I've read Ubi Soft was trying to work a live movie Assassin's Creed as well. Is it going to crossover the PoP movie universe??
*Assassin's Creed 2 SPOILERS*
Have the scifi greek gods of AC built the sands of time of this movie??
Anyway, good fun movie! Go watch it!
*Though the ones I heard it from mostly played the original games only
ReplyDeleteHum.. Probably fanboys of the Sands of time game. Not of the overall PoP series :P
I've seen people complaining it wasn't true to the SoT storyline. But I prefer this being influenced by ALL the PoP games!
It was pretty good and entertaining.
Loved the adventure/epic feel of the movie.
I specially found the dagger having A BIG RED BUTTON to push pretty gam-ysh.
ReplyDeleteI would have kinda prefered something more magical/spiritual than the red button on it...
Though it made more sense in the end, when the prince's brother had to use it with no specific knowledge how to!
Hi! I'm a long time fan of around 20/30 of age, and I did like it! It was kind watchable and worked out nicely in the end ;)
You know, there was a book I read once that I really wanted. Basically it was a game guide and walkthrough for the first two PoP games- CEPT IT WAS WRITTEN IN THE STYLE OF A FIRST PERSON NARRATIVE NOVEL. It was the Prince describing his adventures in the form of a story yet going into detail enough to offer a play-by-play walkthrough to beating both of them.
ReplyDeleteIt was really cool, and at the time I had never seen such a thing. I wanted to buy it but not having the game(We had it on school computers, and it was the most popular game), my mom was not convinced as to why I needed such a thing. Was wondering if you had seen it, or had it.
They also did such a thing with Sam and Max hit the road, and a few of the Sierra adventure games, but with those kinds of games it's easier to do such a thing IMO.
ReplyDeleteOh! Yeah, that book!
ReplyDeleteI don't have it but Jordan Mechner himself talks about that briefly in the postscript at the end of the Prince of Persia graphic novel (first thing in my photo up there)
He talks about all the various PoP incarnations, be it the 3 main different Princes in the games or just the various faces the original one had on all the different console ports. I describes how every team who ported the game tried to bring in their own unique Prince and a different Prince "lived" through that narrated walkthrough.
fun stuff :'3