Review: Prince of Persia

I can't complain about staring at a shirtless Jake Gyllenhaal for 2 hours. I didn't want to start my review out like that, but it's true. That was the best part of this film.

'Prince of Persia' is based on the video game of the same name. Like the game, there's lots of jumping around coming from Dastan (Gyllenhaal) in the fight scenes. I appreciated that. It was cool to see. This film is definitely all about the visuals and not so much about the plot. Rouge Prince Dastan joins forces with Princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton, who doesn't really act, just talks..and talks...and talks)to fight off evil. It wasn't particularly engaging. It could've used more humor in my opinion. I felt like the film was just going through the motions instead or trying to get the audience's attention.

The effects were alright. Not amazing, definitely not horrible. This might not have been the best film for Director Mike Newell to helm. Action isn't really his thing. He managed to screw up 75% of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. (although most of that was probably Steve Kloves's fault) Newell's better with emotionally driven material. This was lacking that. Gyllenhaal, Ben Kingsley and Alfred Molina are all fine actors, and while this script was probably awesome on paper, it ended up being just average. That's probably the best word to describe this film; "average".

Recommended: No

Grade: C

Memorable Quote: "You're welcome to search me for it, but you'll have to be very thorough." - Prince Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal)

Memorable Audience Quote: (I'm going to assume this guy was kidding) Before the film even began some bloke mentions to his companion that "This is going to be bullsh*t because Gyllenhaal isn't even Persian" - Thanks Captain Obvious, at least it's not Tom Cruise trying to be German again.