A damn fun film.

Rating: 9/10 (28 May 2010)

To summarize where I'm coming from: (1) I've never played the 'Prince of Persia' games, (2) I had no idea what they were about, (3) I've never read any promotional side product of the video games, (4) I've never even read a summary of one of the game's plot off of Wikipedia. The most was maybe I read one back-of-the-box blurb in a Blockbuster 3 or 4 years ago, and I can't even remember what it said. So, other than seeing the trailers and the knowledge that this did come from a video game, and that this was coming from Disney. So, in the end – or at least when I was heading in to see the movie – I was hoping for an exciting PG-13ish popcorn flick.
My hopes were well met.
'Prince of Persia' was as good if not better than many other fun flicks I have seen. The characters were entertaining and neat. The quips and banter between Dastan and Tamina was good. The special effects were well done for a movie where you knew walking in that realism wasn't a major factor. Many details of plot were predictable, but enough was going on to have me hooked in so that I didn't care. The relation Dastan had with his father and brothers was very interesting and wasn't as cookie-cutter as I expected. In fact, it was better handled that in many "serious" movies I've come across.
The only other criticism I had was the overuse of bullet-time and ordinary slow-motion shots. The bullet-time was good a few times, since normal speed would had just been quarter-second and gone instead of adding a little bit of tension. But the slow-mo during some jump scenes or dramatic moments looked force. Plus the choppiness was took much (Dastan in front of the fire, for example). They should had planned that shot in advance and sped up the film during recording to get a smoother slow-mo image instead of dropping the frame rate in playback.
Eh. So it wasn't perfect. The humor, banter, and tension was well done, and the movie never felt like it was going on too long or too boring. Dastan's acrobatic tricks might had felt forced if it wasn't for the fact the talent was well established at the beginning, and if anything it made sense for him to use his talents throughout the film. And it 'was' entertaining to watch.
To repeat myself in summary, it was fun. This is the first time I've walked out of a movie not only feeling the possibility of a sequel looming but also very much looking forward to it. I also can't wait for the Blu-Ray release.
Sit back, grab the popcorn (or nachos or pretzel-bites), and enjoy.