Prince of Persia (3½ Stars)

I didn't bother with "Prince of Persia" when it was first released. I don't care much for video game adaptations, and I also picked up in casual reading that the film was slammed by the critics. In 2010 I took the opinion of film critics more seriously than I do today. But I knew even then that I'd have to watch it some day. After all, it stars three of my favourite actors, Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton and Ben Kingsley. It also has Alfred Molina, but I didn't realise that until I watched the film today. Now that the price has sunk to £1.10 (less than $1.50) it's a good time to invest in a Blu-ray. That's cheaper than a video store rental, if video stores still exist anywhere.

The film is no masterpiece, far from it, but it does have some charm. I don't regret watching it, but it'll be a long time before I watch it again, if ever. It was still good value for money, even if I only watched it once. But then again, nothing is certain where I'm concerned. I'm erratic.

Jake Gyllenhaal plays Dastan, an orphan who's adopted by Sharaman, the King of Persia. He's not destined to become king, that honour will fall to one of the king's real sons, but he will have a life of luxury. Dastan grows up to be courageous and headstrong, although his bravery is considered to be foolhardy by his brothers.

When the Persian army discovers that the holy city of Alamut has been making weapons for Persia's enemies it's decided to conquer it and put it under Persian military rule. Dastan steals an ornamental dagger belonging to Tamina, the Princess of Alamut, not realising that it has great mystical powers. When filled with special sand it can be used to turn back time.

I remember playing the original Prince of Persia computer game, briefly at least. It was first written for the Apple computer in 1989, but I played the PC version which was released a year later. A work colleague of mine bought it and let me play it on his computer, while he shouted over my shoulder what I should do next. At that time I was a fan of the computer adventure games made by Sierra, games including "Leisure Suit Larry", "King's Quest" and "Space Quest". An adventure game typically involved solving puzzles to progress through a game. This was in contrast to arcade games, which involved fast reactions to progress.

I remember "Prince of Persia" as a crossover between adventure and arcade games. It was necessary to do things to progress, such as pressing levers, but the game involved a lot of jumping and climbing, as well as sword fights with opponents. No speed was needed to walk from one area to another, unlike typical arcade games, but there was a 60 minute time limit to get to the end of the game and save the princess. I'd say the game was about 60% arcade and 40% adventure.

Interestingly, the prince in the computer game had blond hair. I wonder why. Maybe it was just to clearly differentiate him from the opponents in the primitive video graphics of the time. Standard VGA resolution offered 640x480 pixels with 16 colours, or 320x200 with 256 colours. Those were the good old days.

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