Solid matinée fare but needed more spark, comedy, thrills and build to make it more than that

Rating: Null/10 (13 March 2011)

I never played this video game but as an Assassin's Creed fan I can see how it must have played and, although games are always best played rather than watched (ask my girlfriend – she knows), lots of films have made free-running related action into quite thrilling sequences or films (Casino Royale, District 13 come to mind). The plot here sees a Prince fleeing after being accused of the murder of his father the King. With him he takes the beautiful princess of the city they have just sacked, although her reasons for coming along are less to do with him and more to do with the supernatural dagger he has looted, unaware of its power. As he tries to clear his name, he comes to realise that the dagger was the target all along and that someone has been after it from the very start.
Prince of Persia was one of several blockbusters that I ignored in 2010, partly because of the poor word of mouth and reviews but also to do with my decreased appetite for overpriced cinema tickets just to watch rubbish marketed as gold. I cannot remember a lot of dislike for this film though, but it was just the lack of positive reviews that made me throw it to the back of my mind with a note to maybe check it out on DVD or happily wait 4 years for it to wash up for free on terrestrial television. Anyway, I watched it sooner than that but my attitude of apathy was the same as I was told it was the movie choice for the evening! However I quite enjoyed it for what it was. It has enough solid qualities to make it work and entertain for about two hours, even if it is entirely forgettable once you eject it from the player! The plot is clunky and obvious but it sets up frequent chases and action sequences that perhaps don't provide substance but at least provide distracting noise, which is good enough for a Friday night.
Well, perhaps not Friday night but this is a really good matinée for a wet Saturday or Sunday afternoon – which in years to come will be where it plays well to a family audience. The action is solid, providing lots of near misses and close escapes and lots of impressive free-running. It isn't ever really thrilling though and the danger never feels real – no matter who dies around them, one never feels like the lead two are ever in real peril. This sort of flattens things as it misses this quality and at the same time it can apply to other aspects as well because the film does generally seem to be close but still lacking something. A spark perhaps? It has it at times because it has the comedy, it has the potential thrills, it has some good chemistry but it never quite makes everything work as it should, which is why it didn't thrill.
I hate the franchise but the first Pirates of the Caribbean film got it right – fun, exciting and all just there to be enjoyed and not take too seriously; Prince of Persia has the same sort of feel but doesn't quite carry it off. I enjoyed Gyllenhaal even if his accent took a minute to get used to. He is fit enough to convince in the action and he gives us a bit of a cheeky swagger that constantly reminds us we are supposed to be enjoying the film. Arterton works reasonably well with him but never to the point where they had a real spark or energy from their pairing. Kingsley does his usual shtick without ever appearing to be working too hard but fortunately we have Alfred Molina bouncing around because he is consistently fun and adds an element of irreverent comedy into proceedings. The supporting cast are all decent enough as all they do is make sure and not be bad. Mike Newell was an odd choice for director and he doesn't really seem suited to it – his direction is solid but not thrilling, like the film as a whole really.
Overall Prince of Persia will be coming soon to a Saturday afternoon slot near you and it will fit in there perfectly. It is a solid family matinée with action without real peril, death without blood, romance without sex or nudity ad all set in a fantasy world that is safe and distant. I can see why audiences generally didn't fancy it when it was being pushed as the big movie of that weekend, but it is good enough and bland enough to do the job when under less of a spotlight.