I just came back from seeing Prince of Persia.
The movie was good. Not excellent, or thought-provoking in the least, but it was a fun waste of my time.
The original prince of Persia was one of the first games I ever played. This movie doesn't have anything but the name and setting to do with that, and given that the whole plot of the firts game can be summarised in a few words, that's understandable. So instead of a blonde guy in white pajamas we have the prince from the new series of games, with mostly original plot about the power of brotherhood and love and other mushy stuff like that with elements and similar characters from the games thrown in.
This is something that seems to always happen with movies based on video-games. Instead of using the plot of the game, the writers take some elements and mostly make up a story of their own. I can understand that in a case of a game like Super Mario Bros, that has not much plot, you'd have to do this (and they indeed did. That abomination of a movie had nothing to do with the games I love. SO on the positive side, it's easy to ignore), but even story-heavy games like Silent Hill get the same treatment. That movie took the familiar imagery, we got to see Pyramid heads and zombie nurses on a big screen, but not the symbolism and story the games had.
And what about the Resident Evil movies? The stories of games might not be masterpieces, but their script didn't do better, and we didn't even get to see familiar faces. I have some hopes for the fourth movie, I wish to see a good fight-scene with Wesky, and ignore everything else.
Can you name any video game movies that are actually based on the game, story-wise?
Well, this movie had the dagger that could turn back time from the Sand of Time-trilogy, some scenes where we got to see the prince running around the city (personally, I'd liked to see more of this) and a similar relationship bet ween the prince and his love-interest. I've only played the first game of the trilogy, so I'm not that knowledgeable about the new games.
But this movie doesn't feel like the game, and I guess that's what they were going for. The prince didn't use the dagger much, a safe decision, since over-using the time-travel in a fight might easily turn boring and make it hard to follow. The dagger only had a limited amount of sand, but I wasn't to sure how much it had in one point. And they didn't do much with the dagger, he didn't use it to slow his enemies, just to rewind. And I think it could have been interesting if the consequences and ethics of time-travel would have been touched, even slightly. Put the prince in a situation where he has a limited amount of the sand, and have to choose when to use it. Should he use it to save someone he doesn't know, even if he might need it later?
He could have used the dagger more. We never got to see him fall to his death and use the dagger to un-shatter his bones and fly back up. And no elaborate death-traps or swirling blades, either!
The movie had an ostrich-race, though.
The plot was flimsy, and I saw every plot-twist coming miles away, the fight-scenes were ok, if at times hard to make out, but it was entertaining. Just don't stop to think about the plot too much.
Like why they kept the dagger in the same place as the hour-glass...
No thinking!
The movie was good. Not excellent, or thought-provoking in the least, but it was a fun waste of my time.
The original prince of Persia was one of the first games I ever played. This movie doesn't have anything but the name and setting to do with that, and given that the whole plot of the firts game can be summarised in a few words, that's understandable. So instead of a blonde guy in white pajamas we have the prince from the new series of games, with mostly original plot about the power of brotherhood and love and other mushy stuff like that with elements and similar characters from the games thrown in.
This is something that seems to always happen with movies based on video-games. Instead of using the plot of the game, the writers take some elements and mostly make up a story of their own. I can understand that in a case of a game like Super Mario Bros, that has not much plot, you'd have to do this (and they indeed did. That abomination of a movie had nothing to do with the games I love. SO on the positive side, it's easy to ignore), but even story-heavy games like Silent Hill get the same treatment. That movie took the familiar imagery, we got to see Pyramid heads and zombie nurses on a big screen, but not the symbolism and story the games had.
And what about the Resident Evil movies? The stories of games might not be masterpieces, but their script didn't do better, and we didn't even get to see familiar faces. I have some hopes for the fourth movie, I wish to see a good fight-scene with Wesky, and ignore everything else.
Can you name any video game movies that are actually based on the game, story-wise?
Well, this movie had the dagger that could turn back time from the Sand of Time-trilogy, some scenes where we got to see the prince running around the city (personally, I'd liked to see more of this) and a similar relationship bet ween the prince and his love-interest. I've only played the first game of the trilogy, so I'm not that knowledgeable about the new games.
But this movie doesn't feel like the game, and I guess that's what they were going for. The prince didn't use the dagger much, a safe decision, since over-using the time-travel in a fight might easily turn boring and make it hard to follow. The dagger only had a limited amount of sand, but I wasn't to sure how much it had in one point. And they didn't do much with the dagger, he didn't use it to slow his enemies, just to rewind. And I think it could have been interesting if the consequences and ethics of time-travel would have been touched, even slightly. Put the prince in a situation where he has a limited amount of the sand, and have to choose when to use it. Should he use it to save someone he doesn't know, even if he might need it later?
He could have used the dagger more. We never got to see him fall to his death and use the dagger to un-shatter his bones and fly back up. And no elaborate death-traps or swirling blades, either!
The movie had an ostrich-race, though.
The plot was flimsy, and I saw every plot-twist coming miles away, the fight-scenes were ok, if at times hard to make out, but it was entertaining. Just don't stop to think about the plot too much.
Like why they kept the dagger in the same place as the hour-glass...
No thinking!
