Jordan Mechner disappoints. So does Mike Newell.

Rating: 6/10 (31 May 2010)

When the announcement was made on the Internet that a movie was going to be made based on the superb and incredibly well done game called Prince of Persia - Sands of Time, it was also announced that none other than Jordan Mechner was roped in to write the script and screenplay. Jordan Mechner is, for those who are not too sure, the inventor of the concept of Prince of Persia. Prince of Persia is a game franchise that started out with the DOS based 1989 version. A couple of years later, another very beautifully designed game called the "The Shadow and the Flame" was released. Several years later, when gaming technology had reached a whole new level, Ubisoft joined Mechner and rebooted the series with game of the same name. This game was a hit and received critical acclaim.
Now, the Sands of Time was followed by Warrior Within. Mind you, without Jordan Mechner in the team this time around! This second game was criticized for 1) Being too violent and containing mature material 2) Being opposite in its mood compared to the first game. I never understood this criticism except maybe the first one. The game was no longer meant for the younger audience. But the theme of the game demands it. If you want to show a man face to face with death, would you be a cheerful guy who makes jokes and sees the funny side of the story? Or would you elevate yourself to be a hard-hearted man who wants to change his destiny? Why am I typing all this? One point - this game was good in my opinion and I don't care what the critics say. Then comes the third part and this time Mechner is back. And let me tell you - he brought the cheesy romance back with him.
Jordan Mechner declared about Warrior Within, "I'm not a fan of the artistic direction, or the violence that earned it an M rating. The story, character, dialog, voice acting, and visual style were not to my taste." Your taste? If part three is what you taste is like, it means what you like is precisely what many gamers do not like (about The Two Thrones, the third installment) - 1) Pre-programmed fight sequences 2) Cheesy romantic dialogs between male and female leads while the world is ending 3) Completely linear game flow and other issues.
You can get away with enforcing your taste, maybe in the world of video games but you can't do that in a movie. You have to make the audience (and critics) believe and get involved in the story. You like a couple to have love-like-tension in the middle of the desert faced with danger, not many digest that these days. Why Jordan Mechner? Why can't you keep your taste aside for a moment and understand that you are making a movie about a Persian warrior who holds the key to saving the world in his hand? Why don't you understand that in a movie you need to convince people what is happening? What I did not like about the movie and I believe I must blame the director and the writer for it is this - the comfort a man and a woman can seek from each other when they are faced with the grave danger they are faced is definitely not the cheesy kind of love tension shown in this movie. And, a movie based on sword fighting game not having one clear shot of a sword fight. Yes, those typical shaky cam like sequences where only at the end of the fight you realize who hit whom with what. Humor is good but not when it takes away all the tension the danger is suppose to cause. In other words, the humor in this movie is weird and improperly placed.
What I did like about the movie is the desert landscape and the city they "made" in which the story is set. That is a job well done indeed. I have no problem with the cast as well. I am positive that the cast is talented indeed but of what use is the talent without the two important people who do the direction and the writing part? The story was suitably modified by Mechner for a movie but the script is not satisfying at all. Mechner should understand that the audience today has grown. If the thinks he can still fascinate an audience with a script that worked in 1989, sorry, that is not going to work today. Any seasoned movie watcher will realize that this movie had a lot of potential with the right tweaks in the direction and script.
The CGI is really well done. They could have easily shown some impressive sword fighting with subtle slow motion sword shots but they choose an option which seems to be gaining increasing favor in the last couple of years i.e. the rapid shaky cam approach. But still, okay, the CGI is really well done. Kudos to the CGI team. Whoever designed the sets of the movie, kudos to you too. That too is a job well done. Costumes seemed okay. I am not in a position to comment on the cultural accuracy of the costume but for a fiction history, I don't think I am too bothered with that intricate detail (as long as Persian warriors don't wear Rolex watches).
Overall, this movie is watchable. But this movie had so much in it to make it really big. I give it a 6 - an enjoyable experience with no moments to remember for a long time. Thanks.