Prince of Persia the movie — Suck or Sucess?
November 30, 2009 by Shawn Deena
Filed under Video Game Marketing
Man I'm in a videogame movie?
It’s official, the new Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time movie has a release date of May 28, 2010 and wouldn’t you know, it’s under the helm of captain action, Jerry Bruckheimer. Clearly looking to fill the void left behind and soured by the debacle that was the last Pirates movie, based on the trailer (see below) this looks to be an action sandwich made with action bread and washed down with a large class of … action.
Here’s what we know — the Prince now has a name (Daston), the girl is not from any of the games but at least she has a real English accent. By the way, if you can’t place the face on the poster, the prince is played by Jake Gyllenhaal, sporting a fake accent. Also lined up for this action epic are big shot thespians Ben Kingsley, Alfred Molina and it’s directed by Harry Potter:Goblet of Fire and Young Indiana Jones director Mike Newell
Now before you look at the trailer let’s keep a few things in mind.
The game the movie is pulling it’s source material from a game that was a critical success and a fave of gamers. Released on the original Xbox, the storyline did include a dagger and a gameplay element that tied into the plot. The “sands of time” would allow you to manipulate time by slowing it down or rewinding slightly. In the game you had to go around collecting all the sand that had been released from this giant hourglass. The game, developed by Ubisoft Montreal was released … in 2003. It was a gorgeous display of the machine’s graphic capabilities and gave this prince some mad acrobatic skills that have been the staple of the series since then. And for you ultra trivia folks that Ubisoft game was a re-imagining of the PC classic franchise developed by Jordan Mechner.
Now back to the movie — from the looks of the trailer it looks …. fantastic. But we all know too well how this works. No matter how amazing the trailers for these videogame movies are when we finally get to the actual movie it falls apart like a bunch of Jenga blocks. For now, let’s enjoy the possibility that underneath this Prince of Persia trailer is a great videogame movie worthy of it’s console counterpart.
I think of a more violent "The Mummy" and I am sure that is about as high as my expectations are going to go. Plus, Disney has their hands on it so minus more points. But hey, at least it's not a "Doom" sequel.