Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, Ben Kingsley, and Alfred Molina. Directed by Mike Newell. Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. Music by Harry Gregson-Williams.
This movie is touted as the follow-up to Jerry Bruckheimer's last epic Disney romp, Pirates of the Caribbean. While it didn't have the same perfect mix of cast, characters, and script, this movie has a lot of the same swashbuckling feeling in it--Bruckheimer's stamp is all over it. But before I get too far into that, marvel with me over the cast and how much I recognize them.
Jake Gyllenhaal. Um, duh. I first started recognizing him with The Day After Tomorrow (let's agree not to link any more movie titles or I'll be here until tomorrow), then with Jarhead and Brokeback Mountain. I also saw that he was in Brothers with Tobey Maguire, and he was in Zodiac. Basically, he's made a name for himself over the last decade. I also happened to read an article by Joseph Hooper in this month's copy of Elle magazine, which reminded me of the fact that he plays Billy Crystal's son in City Slickers (what?? Oh yeah, I remember that!! lol). Plus he's gorgeous, so he's a face you remember easily. He has this really sweet look to him, so he leaves an impression. When I saw that he was slated to star as the swashbuckling hero in this movie, I was floored. He didn't seem the type, and at first, it took me a while to get used to him as the dashing prince hero. But he really fits it by the end of the movie. In fact, one of the best quotes from the article comes from Jake himself: This role is "surprisingly more me than any role I've played before. In that sense, I'm probably more of a prince than I might let on." The article ends, "The ballsiness of this proclamation takes him by surprise, and he has the good manners to blush." (p. 103 of the June 2010 issue of Elle, if you're interested) I was just really amused by this quote. It's most revealing because instead of playing introverted, dramatic roles, he apparently prefers the epic hero. Which I think is great! To be able to admit that you like playing that part, that's great. As I said, he hasn't really been that actor up until now (unlike, say, someone like Orlando Bloom, who has played almost exclusively heroic characters). But it's kind of fun to go on the ride with him, because you can tell how much he's enjoying himself. He was just fun to watch, plus like I said, he's enormously handsome and MAN does he have some muscles in this movie. :)
Gemma Arterton. I mentioned her in the post where I mentioned my interest in this film, but I'll recap here. I first saw her (or noticed her) in the wonderful parody/tribute Lost in Austen, where she plays a thoroughly modern Elizabeth Bennett. Apparently she was also the Bond girl in the latest Bond movie, Quantum of Solace. Who knew? A pale but sassy Elizabeth Bennett is a far cry from the tanned, anguished Bond girl in the 2008 film. I also have a BBC DVD set where she plays Tess of the D'Urbervilles, but I haven't watched it yet. She fits period roles because of her classic beauty and pretty accent. Her latest screen presence was in Clash of the Titans, where, similar to this movie, she played a priestess destined for great things and hopelessly in love with the hero. I felt this role was enormously similar to that one, but as she's such a pretty lady, it's very easy to see her in that role. She is equal parts beauty and passionate wit, so it works. I felt slight disappointment that Tamina felt so similar to Io, but at least the love story was a bit more believable in this one. I like her, at any rate, so no worries.
Ben Kingsley. Apparently he has been in about a million movies that I've heard of but never seen. To name a few: Shutter Island, The Love Guru (actually I did see that one, now that I think about it), Lucky Number Slevin, Tuck Everlasting, AI, Rules of Engagement, Schindler's List, and a whole slew of classical roles. His resume stretches all the way back to 1966. Wow has he seen some changes over the years! I recognize him despite having seen almost none of his movies, and I suspect the makeup and facial hair make him look a bit different anyway. I expected to have seen more of his movies when I got home to check, but I guess not. Still, he was great--as you would expect from such a resume.
Alfred Molina as Sheik Amar, or the small business entrepreneur (lol you'll get it if you see the movie). Okay, let me start off by saying I had NO idea this was him! Talk about the surprise of the movie when I saw who played his character!! He was in one of the previews before this movie, and I remember placing him in my memory and knowing exactly who he was. He's the villain in the upcoming Sorcerer's Apprentice movie with Nicolas Cage and Jay Baruchel. I saw his face and went, "Aha! I recognize him! But from where??" After some thought, I realized he was the Doc Ock villain from Spiderman 2. And that was it. I watched my movie, enjoying his character almost more than any other in the whole film, and came home to discover that it was the very same actor. I was shocked! And then I went through the rest of his resume and was like Jeez, I recognize him from more than I thought! He was in The Da Vinci Code, Pink Panther 2, Chocolat, and many others. But still, hands down the most amazing part was the fact that he was so well disguised in this movie that I didn't even recognize him! Even though he was in the preview right before the movie! Just amazing. If you go see this movie, prepare to be utterly charmed by his character. I loved him so much.
I will take a moment to mention that Richard Coyle and Toby Kebbell, who played the 2 brothers of Jake Gylenhaal, looked enormously familiar, but I don't recognize any of their work or their names. Guess they just look like other people. But Richard Coyle's character was pulled straight out of a Tolkien novel, with his royal bearings and struggles to be the king he was meant to be. He could have been in Lord of the Rings and he would have fit. In fact, I thought he might have been in them, but apparently not. He played his part well. And did I mention Toby Kebbell is also in the upcoming Sorcerer's Apprentice? Kind of crazy how well Disney spins their webs...
I recognized Mike Newell's name when it came on at the end, but at first I couldn't place him. When I checked at home, I realized he directed the 4th Harry Potter movie, Goblet of Fire. Turns out he's also done a few others I recognize: Love in the Time of Cholera, Mona Lisa Smile, Four Weddings and a Funeral, all the way back to 1964. Another experienced player. There were a couple of shots that jarred my experience of the movie (an artsy shot of shadows jumping across rooftops instead of the actors themselves, for example), but for the most part the fighting was impeccably filmed and it was appropriately epic in scale. He did well with this.
And then of course there's the producer, Jerry Bruckheimer. Do I even need to list his credentials? I'll go back as far as 2000 but then I'm stopping! Yet again, we've got the upcoming Sorcerer's Apprentice on his resume (you know really, I'm surprised Jake isn't starring that one as well :P), CSI, Confessions of a Shopaholic, both National Treasure movies, all 3 Pirates of the Caribbean movies, Deja Vu, Glory Road, King Arthur, Black Hawk Down, Pearl Harbor, Remember the Titans, Coyote Ugly, Gone in Sixty Seconds...etc. This guy knows how to make a movie. And he's done it again with this one--Prince of Persia is jam packed with action and epic shots and flowing music and all the good stuff. It wasn't one of his best movies, which I'll discuss in a moment, but it certainly had that Jerry Bruckheimer joyride feel. Definitely fun. Oh and did I mention there's apparently another Pirates movie scheduled??? I heard it was just going to be about Jack Sparrow, but I didn't realize it was already moving forward. Crazy.
Now I know I don't traditionally mention the soundtrack on movies, but I pay attention to every one. I'll admit, my favorite type of music to listen to is movie soundtracks because I like to be able to picture the movie while I'm listening to the music. I can literally watch a movie in my head by listening to a soundtrack, and I find that so much more satisfying than just listening to music on its own. As such, I recognize the name of several different composers because I often own several of their soundtracks. As soon as I saw Harry Gregson-Williams, I immediately knew why it was such a good soundtrack. I know him most for Shrek and Chronicles of Narnia, both great soundtracks. The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe is a fantastic soundtrack. He also scored X-Men Origins: Wolverine, another great soundtrack, plus Deja Vu, Kingdom of Heaven, Bridget Jones 2, and others. You can see from his resume that he's good at epic soundtracks. His name doesn't have quite the weight of John Williams, James Horner, or Hans Zimmer, but he's definitely proving his mettle. This was such a good soundtrack that I'll admit another little secret: I've already downloaded it from Amazon and am listening to it as I write this. Only $7.99!! :)
Now finally to the actual review! lol This was an enjoyable movie. It took a while to get there, but I enjoyed it overall. I feel that this was very similar to Pirates of the Caribbean--right down to an interesting similarity in Jake Gyllenhaal's outfit compared to Jack Sparrow (think loose, light tops with flowy pants and head scarves). There's a lot of hand-to-hand combat and impressive fighting moves. It has a love story between two lovely people, both with a bit of sass. And it's decidedly epic, with a sweeping score, wide shots and a far-reaching good vs. evil plot. It's even based on a former Disney idea--Pirates was created from the ride, and Prince of Persia was pulled from a video game.
The difference here? Prince doesn't have near the plot or wit of Pirates. I spent a lot of time wondering what was really going on, and why all of the plot points needed to be converging at once. I mean, it made sense in the end, but did it really need to be quite so complicated? Why did he need to be an adopted orphan prince who gets blamed for killing his king/father and then runs off with the fiery priestess and has the dagger and is constantly running around getting in trouble? It's like I said, all the plot points came together beautifully in the end, which justified the winding path it took to get there, but from time to time, I felt like it was a bit contrived.
The fighting was amazing but it felt very very choreographed. There's a lot of jumping and swirling and flipping and dashing and all kinds of crazy things. Jake shows his fitness in this movie as he practically flies around, kicking the crap out of his enemies. He's fun to watch, but it feels a little less believable and charming than Pirates. I suspect this has something to do with it being based on a video game. This movie, since it delves into the supernatural as the basis for its plotline, doesn't work as hard to be historically credible as Pirates. I figure the fighting style is taken from the game, which would be sooo much fun to play like that. You would feel like the biggest badass of all time. Jake (or I suppose I should start calling him Dastan) really looks like the biggest badass of all time. But you jump in to him being awesome, so you lose some of the charm of watching him get that way. Why is he so much better than everyone else? You just have to accept that he's a badass and then sit back to enjoy the ride.
It took me about 10 minutes to adjust to Jake speaking with an accent. I kept looking at him going, Nope, nope I just can't see him with an accent. I'm so used to him in his quiet, firmly American roles. But I got over it. Once you get swept up in everything, you just get used to it. Plus he's so easy on the eyes that a Britsh accent sure can't hurt... ;)
I mentioned that Alfred Molina's character was one of my favorites. He was wonderful, and he captured in his character alone all the fun and joy of Pirates. He was fickle, silly, foolish, and with enough power to make all his flaws even more obvious through his actions. You could tell that Molina really let loose with this character. I suppose there's something freeing about wearing a long dress and head towel--you can really get into character when you don't even look like yourself anymore. He was a true joy to watch, complete with hilarious conservative commentaries on the Persian government. It was hysterical!
The biggest flaw in this movie was the script. It was a little too jumbled and lacked the abundance of witty humor that made Pirates so great. Still, it had an attractive, well-acted cast, sweeping imagery, cool effects, and a great score. It may not be the greatest movie of all time, but it's still enjoyable. I give it 2 rainbows and a pony.
Rating (out of 5 rainbows and ponies): 2 rainbows and a pony
Conclusion: HAPPY ENDING
-PrincessM
