Prince of Persia and The Sands of Time (POPATSOT)

 

 

There are few people who can be as closely associated with the word “blockbuster” as Jerry Bruckheimer (JB), who has been responsible for producing more summer popcorn hits than almost anyone around. His collaborations with director Michael Bay are the stuff which gets long queues snaking round the block and from Beverly Hills Cop all the way to the Pirates trilogy, Jerry has amassed a wonderful repertoire of summer hits which have enthralled audiences around the world. JB aka "Mr. Blockbuster", has made more than 13 billion in movies and continues to impress with Prince of Persia.

 

JB has the art of the summer blockbuster down to a pat. POPATSOT will never win any Oscars, and delivers a fun-filled rollercoaster ride which seeks to thrill, humor, and excite young and old all around the world with a simple almost flaky storyline, of a street urchin who is adopted by the king of Persia and is raised as a prince and he sprinkles the obligatory deceit, murder, hot babe, action sequence with a little time travel thrown in and he managed to mix it all up with a little side dish of Iraq and weapons of mass destruction thrown in too.

 

JB knows how to please the crowds. The plot is simple and not hard for even the kids in the audience to follow. The basic themes of betrayal do not require Macbeth-like thespian skills, and instead rely on the chemistry of Gemma Aterton and Jake Gyllenhaal to keep the guys and gals in the audience interested, and Gemma is red hot, doing well here after a limited role in James Bond and much better than her role in Titans. Jake is good-looking but in a boyish and roguish manner and they do hit it off well enough to pull the whole scroundral with a good heart type prince and the mystical maiden with a mission tag team well enough. There is decent humor, and whatever holes there are in the plot are forgivable.

 

Like National Treasure, the lightweight nature of the plot does not aggravate or annoy, whilst allowing the action sequences to take the breath of the audience away. I must take my hat off to the stunt crew who obviously took the jumps, dives and leaps for Jake and made the action stunning and yet realistic, despite a liberal dose of CGI to recreate Persia in the middle of Morocco. The deserts of Morocco look beautiful and the costumes crew were meticulous in fashioning clothes which look exotic and yet believable.

 

But the real bacon and sausages of any summer blockbuster is the action, and it comes in the usual JB way: lots of it, hit fast, hit fast and hit outrageously. Although you can see some of the action sequences being aided by CGI and will be destined for the next Disneyland ride, it is still highly enjoyable. The surround is immersive, and this will definitely be another demo disc, with deep bass, surround effects enveloping the listener and plenty of knives, arrows and other things flying from the front to the back, all in a well constructed sound field. This show is the equal of Star Trek in its quality and intensity.

 

 

 

Plot 3/5

Action 4.5/5

Surround 4.5/5

 

And what about the chick factor?

Well ever since Gemma Aterton hit the silver screen, things have gotten hotter and she can make the temperature in the room go up by 10 degrees just by sitting in it and if she speaks in the clipped British accent or simply smiles, then you are likely to have smoke or blood emitting from your nose and eyes.. 4/5

 

I am also grateful JB did not resort to milking the 3D cash cow, and with all the action, fun and humor, he did not really need to stoop so low. Another hit for Mr Blockbuster I reckon.

 

 

Should you rent, buy or ignore this?

I am putting in a pre-order for the video once it is released, enough said.