If there's one thing a lot of movies aim to be, it is to be escapist entertainment that'll knock your socks off and run away with logical gaps, forcing you to suspend your disbelief and just forget the world, forget logic and have fun. We're still a few weeks away from The Last Airbender, but like that movie, the glaring inconsistencies with race is a bit too obvious to ignore, and this upcoming movie really stretches your ability to suspend disbelief like bubble gum tape.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Mind you, I am a huge fan of the Sands of Time quadrilogy of games, and truth be told, I had a bit of hope that this video game movie would actually go against the grain and be a pretty decent, if not good, film. With the financial backing of Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney, the screenplay of the original creator of the game and a semi-competent director on hand, there's actually a lot about the film that could really make it worthwhile.
But come on, how can anyone in their right mind even believe that Jake Gyllenhaal could be a Persian dude? A Persian prince, even? He adopts a British accent, relatively toned body and longer hair but I don't see him as a convincing Middle-Eastern man. Truth be told, the game also has a similar look to the character (and a semi-British accent), but come on. Jake Gyllenhaal: the action hero?
To be fair, the scale of the film is pretty ridiculous, and the action scenes look exciting enough to hold anyone's attention. But will the film blatantly cater to gamers with stupid *wink, wink, nudge, nudge* artifacts, or work as a standalone film that can be widely appreciated? Part of the appeal of the games came with the fact that the Prince's name isn't even explicitly given out, which adds to the mystery of his backstory and personality, but this movie just had to go eff it up and put a tag on the dude. This kind of feels like a disservice to fans already.
But what other choice do you have when the other movie opening up this week is...
Sex and the City 2
You know what, I change my mind. I think Prince of Persia is going to be the best movie ever. Compared to this cash-in of the success that befell the first movie of the successful HBO series, that is.
After the first movie (which I didn't watch for the obvious reasons), it's a bit hard to know what the writers have conceived this time. Umm..., family, fashion shows, escape from family, err..., desert? What? The desert? What, pray tell, are they doing in the freaking desert?
To the movie's credit, at least the production company had the courtesy to make the trailer, I don't know, not rife with spoilers? If you've noticed, a lot of movies condense their entire running time into a 1 and a half minute summary of events and pass it off as a trailer, this one at least makes you wonder how the hell the iconic middle-aged foursome ended up in the not-so-posh desert.
That said, I have zero intention of even watching this movie. The first one, you could forgive for existing because there are fans who clamor for their return. But this one feels like a stupid cash-in that wants to bank on Sarah Jessica Parker, who isn't even a draw even back then. They're all middle-aged and over-the-hill, dare I say it. But you know what, the women (and the homosexuals) will dig into this whether they like it or not, because it's freaking Sex and the City. No explanations needed.
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