Jerry Bruckheimer's Prince of Persia is released today in France - french poster above - and Friday in the U.S. I saw it at Paris press screening one week ago. It's a typical Bruckheimer summer movie and as usual the production is pretty good. Beautiful decors - even if most of the gorgeous oriental cities are digitally created - and those of you who like Adventureland theming should like them a lot. The movie photography and original music score are very good too.
As we know the movie is inspired by Prince of Persia's video game and should delight the fans. And what about the actors? Ben Kingsley is once again playing the bad guy and he is generally good playing villains. But for me the problem is Jake Gyllenhaal. He is generally a good actor - remember him in Oscar winner's Brokeback Mountain? - and he is obviously trying to do his best in Prince of Persia, but sorry, he didn't convinced me and I even think he's a casting mistake. Now, may be it's not totally his fault as the story line remains extremely primary. Really. The movie is well directed by Mike Newell and SFX are as good as we can expect but it's a pity that the movie didn't had a better script.
It supposed to be a "A" movie and for Jerry Bruckheimer it's may be his "Lawrence of Arabia" but not anyone can be David Lean and in fact it's a deluxe "B" movie, that's what it is. You won't have a bad time watching it but you'll probably forget it as fast as you saw it except may be the beautiful decors and costumes that will remain in your mind. I don't expect the movie box-office to be huge - not bad either but just a medium success - and i'm not even sure there will be a sequel, but who knows, I may be wrong!
Anyway, you understood that i'm not extremely enthusiastic about Prince of Persia but if you want to know more about it here is some video interviews - with french subtitles for my french readers! - beginning by actor Jake Gyllenhaal playing Dastan...
...Gemma Arterton playing the beautiful Princesse Tamina...
...Sir Ben Kingsley, playing the "traitor" Nizam...
...And director Mike Newell & producer Jerry Bruckheimer.
Picture and videos: copyright Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer
