Trailer Comment Weekly, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Welcome to the first installment of Trailer Comment Weekly, the first in a series of communal posts. This column will focus on a recently released trailer that we watch and then all our writers will give their two cents. Enjoy!

This week we focus on the Mike Newell directed, Jerry Bruckheimer produced, sure-to-be-a-next-summer-blockbuster Prince of Persia: Sands of Time starring Jake Gyllenhaal.

Now on the opinions (in the order they were received):

Evan Koehne:

First of all: BEN KINGSLEY? The mighty have fallen.
Prince of Persia will look stunning, have awesome battle sequences, and more bad British accents than a re-make of Mary Poppins. Aside from that, it won't be much we haven't seen already. Being a fan of the video game, I am glad there will be some wall-jumping segments. But why does Hollywood think that every great action video game should be turned into a mediocre action movie? I remember a time when action movies had stories, like... Predator?

Catie Moyer:

I can't help but think I am watching a live action sequel to Aladdin, and would like the thank Jerry Bruckheimer for yet again putting his money into an action-packed hero's tale with adorable romantic asides, annoying but not quite evil villains, and relentless PG humor. As always, Disney has done Joseph Campbell proud.

Jackson Bishop:

Can anyone tell me what about Jake Gyllenhaal screams "Prince of PERSIA"? Is it just me? Am I crazy? Anywho, I've never played the game, but this looks like a really lazy attempt by Disney to replace the Pirates series. On the plus side, Gemma Arterton is really hot.

Steven Ray Morris:

Could be a fun ride, Gyllenhaal is always a solid actor. Although I thought we had gotten past this idea that only white people could play lead roles.

Mia Resella:

Gotta love that Disney budget! You can definitely see Pirates all over it, which was far from lacking in fun and charm, and they might even get lucky and pull it off again. But it's hard to be excited for yet another formula-film adapting an old video game/cartoon/amusement park ride. I think they have a giant mad lib somewhere for the treatment, where they replace nouns with a pop culture piece of media, preferably from the 90's. Why can't they just start hiring real writers with original ideas? Didn't they get my resume??

Kelsey Brannan:

Prince of Persia is where Aladdin meets Lord of the Rings and Lord of the Rings meets Transformers.

"A desert is a place without expectation" (Nadine Gordimer). But in this desert, the audience expects everything...

I feel as if this Disney movie is relying on the special FX to tell the story. Jake Gyllenhaal, dressed in "orientalized costumes" is not flying through a desert, but a in-front of a "green-screen."

Michael Anthony Lopez:

For me, this trailer was a roller coaster of up and downs. While I liked it one moment, the next I did not. I don't know, Prince of Persia looks like another heap of Bruckheimer. Pirates was cool but I'd like to see him try something not so epic...and possibly NOT through Disney.

I feel that the trailer would have been much better had they taken out the dialogue (corny one liners) and possibly toned down the Michael Bay orgasm of special effects. I'm sure the film will have its moments...as most all films do.

Omar Najam:

Hahahahahaha. Really?! They really made a Prince of Persia movie? Is there some underground P of P movement that I don't know about cause it's not like Halo or Mortal Kombat or Smash Brothers where there's a thick nostalgic value. You don't see shirts at Hot Topic that read "No no no, that's not the way it happened. Shall I start again?". The whole gimmick of the game is that at any point you could die so you'd have to use sand to go back in time and... not fall from the chandelier or something. But I mean... unless they Psycho it up, I don't think the main character is gonna die until the end so... not too concerned about that time travel business. I think the producers were just playing this on Gamecube one day and went "wait a second... screenwriter, DP and storyboard... check! Let's just cast anyone who needs money, shoot, make some merch in time for Christmas".

All in all, it's one notch up from a Nick Cage film cause it has Gyllenhaal and it's great to see Kingsley in anything but The Love Guru but if I want a swashbuckling live action adventure about magical ancient artifacts, sexual tension between the protagonists and lots of sand, I've got The Mummy on VHS, ta.

But it'll be nice to have a movie with Persians that's slightly less racist than 300 :) Progress!

Kira Martins:

First impression:
whoa its like Indian Jones without Indian Jones and newer more digitalized special effects and hopefully not an "it was aliens all along" 'surprise' ending

as I continue to watch it:
hmmm Jake Gyllenhaal (I almost didn't recognize his voice)? as a Persian? Were there no actual Persian actors around to play the part? well I guess they made Jake get a tan... does that make the movie racist? I don't know if I'd take it that far but it certainly seems limiting.

Will I watch this movie when it hits the theaters?
Hell yes! did you SEE that crazy ass back flip? That's what I loved about the game. And the failed continuity of character background and accents (Do Persians speak English with British accents?) is probably going to make me laugh in theaters

Hunter M. Daniels:

Why does Donnie Darko seem to have a British accent in this? I can't wait to see this film, but there is a precisely zero percent chance that I will see it sober.



To be released on May 28th, 2009.

Stay tuned next week...for another trailer!

Link:
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time