My wife and I saw this movie over the weekend.  I went in with mixed feelings, not really expecting much.  Which worked out beautifully since this movie delivered.  Directed by Mike Newell (who most recently did the fifth Harry Potter movie) and based off of the long running and famous video game series, Prince of Persia delivers a far better adventure than other recent movies (that horrid excuse for an Indiana Jones film comes to mind).

Lasting a solid two hours and six minutes, there are only a few scenes that seem forced, such as the long introduction to Alfred Molinas character.  Who was actually a bit of a detraction from the general tone since Molina had a few too many “anti-government” lines and broke what small sense of time-period feeling there was.  Jake Gyllenhaal did a much better job than expected and was strengthened greatly by the performance of Gemma Arterton.  Ben Kingsley did wonderful as well, though most of the characters seemed a bit flat, they mostly remained believable.  There were fairly subtle moments of build-up that provided wonderful motivation for certain characters, which conveyed that the film-makers have a good grasp of how to make a decent movie.

The special effects were good but looked dated since Avatar raised the standards, the scenes where the time-rewinding dagger were used were still exciting and most of the big CG moments weren’t distracting enough to hurt the pace of the film.  Speaking of pace, towards the end, right as build-up to the climax is at its peak, a slow kiss scene is thrown in.  Honestly that is my biggest qualm with this movie.  They pretty much destroyed all the momentum they spent the last 15 minutes developing.  Pretty bad choice as far as pacing goes.  Despite this hiccup, the climactic moment comes with a surprise or two.  In the interest of not revealing too much (and hopefully encouraging you to see this movie) the ending was done differently than I had anticipated.  Which was nice, since there were some very predictable parts.

Like I said, Prince of Persia is probably the best adventure movie to come out for quite some time.  Like most based-on-a-video-game movies it has its flaws, but if you’re one of the many fans of those games, you’ll appreciate some of the more subtle action moments.  Such as when Dastan (the prince) is running from his pursuers and leaps across poles jutting out of buildings and then wall runs across a gap.  Being a slight fan and a general admirer of the franchise, a different level of appreciation was open to me that others might not feel.

All-in-all, this wasn’t a let down by any means.  If you’re looking for some adventure and a little humor, go see this movie.  It restored my faith that Hollywood can make more than the usual crappy “fluff” movies.