Just saw the Prince of Persia movie

[Freedan]

I have to say, I'm surprised. It was actually quite good.

Massive spoilers below. Highlight to read, if you're interested.

They changed quite a bit about the story, but in this case, they didn't have much choice. Most of the game was just the Prince and Farah traveling together, and pretty much everyone else was dead, which wouldn't have made for much of a movie. But the basic premise was intact; there's a traitor in the kingdom, and once the Prince sets right what went wrong, he exposes the traitor, who is then killed.

In this movie, the Prince - named 'Dastan' - is tricked in to killing his father. He's forced to flee the kingdom, and is joined by the Princess ('Tamina'). He initially suspects one of his brothers, but eventually learns that his uncle Nazam was behind it, in a plot to kill off the royal family and take the throne (actually, to prevent the family from ever becoming royal by going back in time).

As Dastan gets his brothers to believe his story, Nazam has them killed by a group of hired mercenaries. To prevent him from using the dagger to use the sands, Tamina is prepared to sacrifice her life to return it to the Gods that gave it to them. Nazam has it stolen, and after Tamina sacrifices herself to allow Dastan to stop him, Dastan and Nazam meet at the sands' resting place. They simultaneously use the dagger, each trying to stop the other, until Dastan comes out victorious.

He finds himself back before his father is killed, and exposes Nazam as a traitor. Nazam attempts to kill the Prince, but is killed himself. Dastan returns the dagger to its rightful owner, and is set to marry Tamina (who has no memory of him, while he remembers everything).

Considering how much they had to change, I'm surprised the movie came out as well as it did.

I know Jake Gyllenhall probably wouldn't have been anyone's first choice to play the Prince, but you stop caring pretty quickly.

My only real complaint is that they didn't make much use of the time-control aspect. It appeared a few times, but considering that was the whole point of the game (and movie, for that matter), it didn't seem to get much attention.

It may not sweep the award shows, but it's good for 2 mindless hours of Summer movie time. If you can put aside your skepticism, it's not bad at all.

[Jason Tandro]

Is it just me or does that story sound a lot like the Lion King (and, in turn, Hamlet).

And why the heck do Kings keep two boys? Did they not prepare for the inevitable treachery?

[chicken]

POSSIBLE SPOILER AHEAD! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

to me, it was a strange mash-up of PoP and assassins creed Oo that scene, where he's standing on the tower and the camera is circling around him? WHAT THE SHIT? the prince should have been named "altair" >_>
also, the scene where he is hopping over those bars which stick out of the wall and everyone's like "whoa, we cannot follow him, lets run on the ground but watch him do his parcour-stuff"

best scene though: the ostrich with the hat

[Freedan]

The ostrich-race owner was awesome. I also like how his buddy, the big black knife-thrower completely no-sold

a steel spike to the chest.

It took four to get the job done.

[tay120n64]

I'm planning on going to see it in the next couple days! I'll share my thoughts of it after that...