REVIEW: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

STARRING: Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton View Trailer DATE SCREENED: 05/03/09 RELEASE DATE: 05/28/09 The Verdict OK - Wait for the DVD

Hollywood is really desperate for story ideas these days. The recent deluge of bad remakes and sequels has really been disheartening. The best movies of 2010 have been based on comic books (Kick Ass & Iron Man). Original ideas are so hard to come by that Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is based on a video game. A video game? Hasn’t that already been proven to be a recipe for disaster (Tomb Raider, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Super Mario Bros)? A video game based movie with Jake Gyllenhaal starring as the action hero? WTF? Needless to say, I was not excited as I walked into the theater to see Prince of Persia.

Set in medieval Persia, Jake stars as Dasdan, a feisty orphan boy who is taken in by the King of Persia and made a Prince. Dasdan and his two brothers lead a successful raid on the holy city of Alamut. Almut has been accused of secretly making weapons (of mass destruction I presume). When the King arrives to inspect the victory, he is murdered. Dasdan has been implicated in the crime, so he flees with Princess Tamina from Almut. His two brothers are in hot pursuit. The twist is that while Dasdan is on the run he discovers a secret that is known to the Princess. A dagger he has stolen from Almut contains some type of magic sand that allows the user to turn back time for a few seconds. Dasdan must elude his brothers, protect this dagger, find more of the magic sand and seduce the Princess, while also finding a way to prove his innocence. Sounds like a busy week…

I do give Prince of Persia credit for containing elements of everything that has proven to be successful in a summer blockbuster. There is lots of action & adventure, good special effects, a budding romance between a Prince & a Princess, comic relief in the form of Alfred Molina as a sheik they cross paths with, and a crowd pleasing ending that wraps up the entire story in a nice little bow. The audience at the screening ate it all up and cheered at the end. I’m not so easy to please. First of all, Jake Gyllenhaal is not the kind of manly charismatic lead I like to see in my action films. Either of the actors who played his brothers would have made a better lead. Jake is the kind of action star that will appeal more to women than the target male audience. The fight scenes are horribly filmed with lots of quick cutting, probably to cover the fact that Jake can’t believably fight on camera. The romance is not at all romantic. First they hate each other and bicker, but in the end they love each other. Wow, never saw that one coming. And the ending is so predictable that you see it coming a mile away. Think about it. If you were falsely accused of a murder and discovered a way to control time, how would you use it in the end? At least the movie keeps up a fast pace through it’s almost 2 hr running time. But Resident Evil will keep its crown as the best of the mediocre to bad crop of movies based on a video game. Wait for the DVD.

REVIEW: Iron Man 2

STARRING: Robert Downey Jr., Mickey Rourke View Trailer DATE SCREENED: 05/04/09 RELEASE DATE: 05/07/09 The Verdict GOOD - See it in the theater

The summer movie season of 2010 kicks off with Iron Man 2! I was never an avid reader of the Iron Man comic book, but the first film was my 2nd favorite movie of 2008. Although this is the 2nd Iron Man film it’s the 3rd film in the “Marvel Cinematic Universe” (Incredible Hulk was the 2nd). This is an exciting time for comic book film fans, as all the heroes, villains, and other characters in the “universe” know about each other and are free to appear in each other’s films. For this dream to be fully realized, Marvel needs to continue to produce good movies that make lots of money.

Robert Downey Jr. reprises his role as Tony Stark/Iron Man. The film picks up with Tony Stark enjoying his newfound celebrity at the opening of Stark Enterprises’ technology expo. It seems that Iron Man has brought about world peace, which has made him hugely popular with the people but not so popular with the government. Tony receives a subpoena to testify before a government committee. The government doesn’t believe an individual should have so much power. They unsuccessfully attempt to pressure Tony to turn over his Iron Man suit to the U.S. military. Tony refuses, claiming that even in the worst case scenario another country would be 5 years away from building an Iron Man type of suit to attack our country.

It turns out Tony is wrong about the 5 years. While Tony’s corporate rival Justin Hammer’s (Sam Rockwell) weapons company is nowhere near perfecting their own military iron man suits, our main villain Ivan (Mickey Rourke) is in Russia with his own crude suit he built in order to settle a long standing personal grudge with Tony’s dad. Ivan soon shows up at a car race in Monaco, as Whiplash, for a showdown with Iron Man. Iron Man emerges victorious and Whiplash is captured. He doesn’t stay in prison for long, as Justin Hammer breaks him out of prison in order to have him fix his nonworking army of iron man suits.

While Whiplash is working on modifying suits into unmanned drones, Tony Stark deals with his personal issues. It seems the device used to power his Iron Man suit is also causing damage to his heart. As Tony works to find a new power source that won’t kill him he is contacted by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) of the government agency S.H.I.E.L.D. They want him to be a part of their “Avengers Initiative” and can help him find a new safe power source.

The subplots don’t end there. At the end of a drunken birthday party, Tony’s good friend Rhodey (Don Cheadle) steals one of the older Iron Man suits and delivers it to the military and Justin Hammer. They outfit the suit with new software and weapons. Tony also attempts to rekindle his romance with Pepper Potts, who is now CEO of Stark Enterprises, while at the same time flirting with his new assistant Natalie (Scarlett Johansson) who turns out to be S.H.I.E.L.D. agent The Black Widow.

All of these plotlines lead to a huge showdown in Flushing Meadow NY between Iron Man & Rhodey, now dubbed War Machine in his suit, against an army of remote controlled iron man like drones & Whiplash.

Although I don’t think Iron Man 2 is as good as its predecessor, it should be good enough to satisfy the audience and generate enough money to keep the series going. There is too much plot and not enough action to be a great movie. I understand they had to set up S.H.I.E.L.D., as it will be a big part of the overall cinematic universe. But once you add that plotline into the movie, you have to cut out some of the other characters and subplots in order to deliver more action set pieces. On the positive side, the two main action sequences are great. And Robert Downey once again does a great job as Tony Stark. He’s extremely arrogant and funny, just as in the first one. The entire cast is good and the special effects are top notch.

A great comic book movie also needs a great villain. You can see that Whiplash had the potential to be that great villain, but we don’t see enough of him being a badass in the movie. There just isn’t enough time to build him up thanks to all the subplots. He’s a good villain, but not great.

All the elements are there for Iron Man 2 to be a great film, but in the end we only get a good movie. It is good enough to keep my excitement level up for all the upcoming films in the Marvel Universe (Thor, Captain America, & Avengers). I can’t wait to see how it all unfolds. Make sure you see this in the theater and wait for the final scene after the credits.