Always knew Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was going to be a popcorn movie so expectations weren't high except for the beefed-up presence of Jake Gyllenhaal in the lead role.
It's based on a video game and is about a street urchin, Dastan, adopted into the Persian royal family as a young child who is framed for his father's murder, at the same time as coming into possession of a dagger that facilitates time travel. Cue: lots of chasing and fighting as he is pursued both for the murder and the dagger.
But it's good fun, some nice little twists in the plot, lots of action, a witty script (if you ignore some of the cheesier lines) and nicely paced. Not normally one for lots of fighting, the scraps are well done with lots of impressive parkour-style jumps, tumbles and dodging weapons.
Gemma Arterton plays the beautiful Princess Tamina who is the feisty damsel and guardian of the dagger and Jake, well, Jake looks gorgeous, playing Prince Dastan with a cheekiness and English accent that made me giggle like a fourteen year old. (There's a nice interview with Jake over on HeyUGuys.)
New favourite thesp of mine Alfred Molina brings humour as the tax-dodging, ostrich-racing Sheik Amar and Ben Kingsley does his usual but, nonetheless well-done, baddie act as the plotting uncle Nizim.
And, yes I did genuinely, and shamelessly, enjoy it more than Avatar, mainly because I felt so let down by the predictability of Avatar's plot and by comparison Prince of Persia's felt almost complex. My cinema companions for the evening Adam and Dr T enjoyed it too. Haven't looked at the reviews yet and I'm predicting mixed opinions but we'll see...
...OK so The Guardian, surprise surprise, wasn't impressed giving it two stars out of five in what I think is a little bit of a sniffy review but critic Andrew Pulver does commend Mr Gyllenhaal on his accent.
Empire Online gave it three stars out of five likening it to a middle-range Harry Potter.
Metacritic gave it 63/100 and Rotten Tomatoes UK gave it 56%
So all as predicted really. Here's the trailer:
And as a special treat to those Jake fans out there here's a link to nice piccie of him showing off his buff bod. Purrrrr
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