Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time

If you haven’t played the video game and or you’re not familiar with the story, much like I wasn’t, Prince of Persia is about Dastan a street kid( Jake Gylenhaal)  in the Persian Empire in the sixth century. After showing that he’s got some balls in the Market place, the king who just happens to be hanging out there decides to adopt him as his son. Dastan grows up as part of the royal family with no royal blood and no eye for the throne.

The plot somewhat borrows from current world issues like the war in Iraq. Fifteen years after being adopted by the king Dastan and his brothers lead the Persian army in an attack on the sacred city of Alamut, under the assumption that the city's people are selling weapons to their enemies, as they’re told by Nizam (Ben kingsley) the King's brother and adviser, who also happens to wear eye liner for some reason.

During the attack Dastan kills one of Princess Tamina's (Gemma Arterton) guards who was in the possession of the mythical Dagger of Time. The dagger gives its owner the ability to go back in time for one minute, so that the user can try to correct any mistake or redo any moment.

While the Persians are celebrating their success, Dastan is fooled into offering a gift to his father which happened to be poisoned, and kills him. Dastan is seen as the perpetrator of his father's murder, so He escapes the castle with Princess Tamina, and goes on the run. While running from his own brothers with her he realizes the power of the dagger, and surprise falls in love with Tamina who is also the guardian of the dagger.

Prince of Persia was a fun story and an entertaining flick to watch, but not any more mind blowing then any other Jerry Bruckheimer film packed with explosions, CGI, ridiculous fight scenes, and an abundance of male actors wearing eye liner.

What didn’t really work for me was the lack of actual Middle Eastern actors aside from the extras, and the fact that everyone spoke with an English accent as opposed to Persian, go figure. I’m not suggesting they should have spoken Farsi or had subtitles because it would have obviously made the film less accessible to the general audience, but the English accent was definitely out of place and un-needed.

The acting for the most part was good. Not Gylenhaal’s best performance to date, but far from his worst. As far as video game adaption’s go Prince of Persia stands much higher than most. I don’t doubt that Disney would love for this to develop into a franchise much Like Pirates of The Caribbean, but I doubt that will actually happen.

One last thing, the run time came in under two hours, but still felt a little too long. They could have lost at least fifteen minutes without hurting the story, which tended to be repetitive and drag on at times.

I’m giving Prince of Persia an overall 5.5/10

Shrek Forever After

It’s always hard to say goodbye. Especially when you’re saying goodbye to one of your favourite films franchises.

The first Shrek was good, the second was great and the third was very “meh”, with this fourth and supposedly final chapter they’ve out done their most recent predecessor, but fall short of the greatness from the second. That’s not to say that Shrek Forever After was a failure, but you’re still sad to see the characters go.

Things have changed a lot since we last saw Shrek, he now has three kids, he’s married, and pretty well hates his routine life as a “family man”. While at the fairy tale version of Chuck-E-Cheeses, Shrek has a nervous breakdown, than erupts on the guests of his kids’ birthday party. After he storms out and then takes off he meets Rumpelstiltskin, who dupes him into signing a dubious contract, then sends him to an alternate reality where he hasn't rescued Fiona, or met any of his friends, and Rumpelstiltskin is king of Far Far away.

The only way for Shrek to return everything to normal, is to have one true love kiss with Fiona. The only problem with this is, Fiona doesn’t love him anymore, because she has no idea who he is, and he wasn’t there to rescue her from the tower. Shrek enlists the help of Donkey (Eddie Murphy) who has no idea who Shrek is and is reluctant to help. Puss and Boots has put on an enormous amount of weight and lives with Fiona and the “Ogre Resistance” she now leads.

The most fun in Shrek 4 is being re-introduced to the core characters all over again. In the alternate reality none of them have met one another yet, and their paths are entirely different. The only person who knows how things should actually be is Shrek.

There are a few new characters brought in, aside from the obviously new bad guy Rumpelstiltskin, but very little is done in introducing them.

The jokes and subtle adult humor that made the first three appeal to all ages, and made up most of the plot, are almost entirely gone aside from one Vagina and one racist joke.

The animation, even the 3D was done extremely well. The 3D is so good that at times it takes you completely out of the story, and becomes somewhat distracting, but even still it overall adds to the quality and enjoyment of the film as a whole.

My one complaint if I can even call it that would be the story ending so quickly. This is not at all due to the pacing, but just the length of the movie being so short. I guess we can blame the short attention spans of today’s youth for that.

I’m giving Shrek Forever After an overall 7/10

Robin Hood (2010)

If you’re not entirely familiar with Robin Hood’s origin, He is a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor," assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men."

This new “re-imagining” of the character by Director Ridley Scott, is not the Robin Hood you might be expecting. He doesn’t wear green tights and a dorky hat, and he’s not friends with Morgan Freeman either.  He’s actually grounded somewhat in England’s history, like most King Arthur tales.

The story is more of a prequel to the Robin Hood folklore you’d expect. Set in early 13^th century England, it’s really a big jumble of History mixed in with Robin Hood folklore, and Scott’s interpretation of the character.

Russell Crowe plays Robin Longstride a working class commoner, and archer riding home with King Richard the Lionheart from the third crusade, but Robin is accused of disloyalty and escapes only after Richards Death. Richard is killed at The Château de Chalus-Chabrol a castle in France (famous in history for Richards death from a crossbow wound while besieging the castle). Robin along with three other men head back to England on their own, but not before interfering with the attempted theft of the Crown by Two faced villain Sir Norman Godfrey (Mark Strong), who is working with the French and the English.

Robin poses as Sir Robert Loxley the man entrusted with Richard’s crown, and while he is dying promises him he’ll return his sword to his father in Nottingham. This is where he meets the real Rob Loxley’s widow, Lady Marion of Loxley (Cate Blanchett).

Robert Loxley (Robin) is chosen to inform the Royal family of the Kings death and witnesses the crowning of King John, Richards brother.  Robin is witness to the injustice of the church and King John’s taxes being enforced on the people, in order to build his army.

Sir Godfrey uses this Royal position to stir things up and in turn cause a Civil War in England. This is when the Northern barons demand King John sign a charter of rights (Magna Carta), which he agrees to after realizing Godfrey is playing both sides of the fence.

The formation of the Magna Carta also serves as an interesting plot point. The Magna Carta if you’re not familiar is the charter put in place to keep the king in check within the law, it guaranteed civil liberty for freemen by limiting the power of the king.

It’s not until after the climax that Robin is revealed not to be Sir Loxley, and declared an outlaw by king John who also now refuses to sign the charter. Robin then moves to Sherwood Forest and forms the “Merry Men”, at which time he is referred to as Robin of the Hood, or Robin Hood.

Ridley Scott is great at putting together stunning action sequences, and finding a way to include them in the story, but with Robin Hood you get amazing action with real history mixed in. It works to some degree, but it also takes you out of the story, and makes it feel somewhat convoluted. Also there isn’t nearly as much action as your lead to believe from the trailers.

If you’re not familiar with England’s history, or you prefer a different interpretation of Robin Hood set in more jolly old merry fun, this may not be for you.

This new take on Robin Hood is more along the lines of Gladiator meets Kingdom of Heaven, or Maximus goes medieval mostly due to Crowe’s intense over acting.

I’m giving Robin Hood an overall 8/10

Iron Man 2 Opening Day Review

So, I wasn’t privy to the early screening of Iron Man 2, like I had hoped. I waited until 5.07 just like most of you. It was a day I was especially looking forward to, because, as a rarity, I got to spend time with my dad, while watching it. The bad part was, as we were walking out, we both said, “I wish Robin Hood had come out this week”.

For the play by play version of the review, you can check out by buddy Mitch’s review HERE. I’m just going to give you an overall description.

Right from the beginning I got this stressed sense of urgency, which just set a bad, crowded pace from the word go. Or maybe, instead of go, it was the ridiculous scream Rourke’s character lets out when his father dies.. It leads right into Ivan Vanko using his father’s blue prints of the arc reactor to build the weaponized vest he later uses as Whiplash and drills home the fact that Vanko hates Stark Enterprises and blames Tony personally for what happened to his father. You find out later that he had been partners with Howard Stark in creating the arc reactor, but was forced out by Stark due to his greed. So, bad opening scene.

Then, well, more bad. Tony does the big entrance to the Stark Expo that we’ve all scene 100 times over in the previews. I’m going to use the word hate here in reference to how I felt about it. Tony Stark, our supposed hero, is, for lack of a better word, pimping the Iron Man suit as a gimmick. I didn’t like the fact that he told the world he was Iron Man in the first movie, so you can imagine how I felt about him parading around to dancing girls and laser shows. Actually, I didn’t mind the dancing girls.

It was definitely a sequel. And I mean that in the sense that they took the best parts of the original and beat them to death. Everyone loves the smartass, sharp tongued, better than thou Tony right? Can’t get enough of it? Wrong. You can only lay witness to so much bragging and showboating before you come to realize that our main character is a douche. Maybe that’s what they were going for. To show a character flaw. It came off as annoying, though.

And if the good guy’s being portrayed as a shithead, you have to out do his douchiness with the likes of Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer. Think of Jim Carrey playing Edward Nigma in Batman Forever. Hammer shares that same jealous rage for Tony Stark that The Riddler did for Bruce Wayne. Only, instead of completely overacting the part like Carrey, Rockwell decided to try to rip off Owen Wilson’s shtick with the whiney, comedic voice. It didn’t work, by the way.

Keeping with the upping the ante theme of sequels, the holographic schematics in Tony’s workshop were over done. When he had his all too easy epiphany after looking at an old model of the Stark Expo, Tony decides that a globe looks like an atom and goes to work on creating a new element. There was a cool little easter egg  here with an all too familiar shield, which, although half destroyed from an obvious battle, still displayed the star emblem in the center. I guess my problem with it was just how easily all of his problems were solved. Even the end scene with Vanko was a little anti-climatic.

The story really wasn’t bad. There was a decent plot. It was just the fill material that dragged it down. That, and, even though there wasn’t really THAT much going on, the way the scenes were cut into short segments made it feel like they were trying to cram too much in. Although it wasn’t anywhere in the same vicinity as being as bad, I kinda’ got that Speed Racer feeling. I know. That’s harsh. I understand the studio rolling this out for the income, but, with what they're wanting to accomplish with The Avengers, I don't think any of the character movies should have been given a sequel beforehand. 

Maybe I’m being a little hard on it, because I was looking forward to it so much. And I’m sure there are going to be plenty of you that disagree and love it. But, at the end of the day, I was left wanting more. Just not more Iron Man.

Iron Man 2

When it was first announced back in 2005, that Marvel was developing a live action incarnation of Iron Man, the billionaire playboy /arms dealer turned super hero. I think it’s safe to say, the general audience had no idea who he was, and had no interest in the character. Then came the casting of Robert Downey Jr. , both the fan boys and the general audience’ interest was dramatically spiked. Iron Man was released in May of 2008, it opened with 98.6 million, and went on to earn over 585 million worldwide. A sequel was inevitable.

Iron Man 2 takes place six months after Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.)  announces to the world, he is Iron Man.

It starts off in Russia, where we’re first introduced to Ivan Vanko aka Whiplash (Mickey Rourke), he’s watching the news broadcast as Stark declares to the world “I am Iron Man”. Then jump to New York, where Tony/ Iron Man is hosting the newly revived Stark Expo, extravagant entrance and all. Stark declares to the audience “If feels good to be back”, and goes on to talk about creating world peace. As he’s leaving the expo, he’s served with a subpoena to appear in front of the senate of arms comity.

It’s at the comity hearing, where we’re first introduced to Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) of Hammer Industries, he is the Department of Defence primary arms contractor, and he’s at the hearing on belhalf of the military which would like Stark to hand over his Iron Man technology, in order for Hammer to put it into mass production for them. Both in attendance for the military as well as Stark, comes in James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) , he sticks his neck out on the line for Stark, but Tony interrupts him anyways, wins over the senate, and refuses to hand over the armour saying “you want my property, you can’t have it, I’ve successfully privatize world  peace, you’re welcome”, to which the senator replies “F*** you Mr. Stark, F*** you buddy”. This basically sets up the tone of the movie, He has changed the world, and the US military is not happy with just that, they intend to stop at nothing to obtain his technology.

Tony realizes his technology that happens to be keeping him alive, and powering his suit, is also killing him, so he appoints his assistant Pepper Pots (Gwyneth Paltrow) as CEO and chairman of Stark Industries.

Six months later, back in Russia, Ivan is creating his own version of the arc reactor originally designed by Howard Stark, from blue prints he just happens to have laying around. Once he has reactor constructed, he purchases a passport and ticket to the Monaco Grand Prix, where Tony Stark is set to appear.

The pace really jumps all over the place like this for the first half of the movie, from Russia they head back to Tony’s  house in Maibu, where happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) and Tony are boxing, in comes undercover Russian super spy Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), who happens to also be Starks new assistant and replacement for Pepper Pots. She gets in the boxing ring with Hogan, and essentially twists his arm around and throws him on his ass, I think this was meant to hint at the fact that there is obviously something more to her, but as most everyone going in will already know, she also a SHEILD agent by the name of Black Widow.

The Monaco Grand Prix, one of only a select few action sequences through out the film, is done amazingly. Tony unexpectedly last second decides to drive the race car he’s sponsoring, himself. Whiplash aka Ivan Vanko walks right out onto the race track and starts cutting cars in half with his whips. Lucky for Tony though, Hogan comes to his rescue racing down the track in his Bentley with Potts, they deliver Tony the Iron Man armour suitcase, very cool. The only problem is, after this he quickly defeats whiplash and that’s it for the action until almost the end of the film. Stark visits Vanko in his Monaco prison cell, where he learns a little bit more about Vanko, and what exactly he knows.

Justin Hammer cleverly breaks Vanko out of prison in Monaco, in order to have him build the technology of Tony’s, that he’s not able to perfect himself, at the same time he’s able to set it up for everyone to believe that Vanko is dead. Hammer tells Vanko “ I want to go to the Stark Expo this year, and take a big dump in Tony’s front yard”. Clever I know, this is how extremely rich geniuses talk.

Bounce back to Stark’s birthday, where we get a small cameo from the now deceased Dj AM, who actually plays part in a small comedic moment between Iron Man and War Machine as he’s first introduced, sort of.

The entrance of Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson) is where things start to get interesting. Natasha, Stark’s new assistant, is revealed as Black Widow, but does next to nothing until closer to the end. Fury knows that Stark is dying from the very thing keeping him alive, so he injects him with lithium dioxide to help, I have no idea what that is. He further explains Vanko’s “story” and his motive behind trying to kill him, it’s Fury that pushes Stark to develop the more perfected version of the arc reactor.

The second half of the film really tries to help set up the next few Marvel projects leading into the Avengers in 2012. SHEILD agent Coulson is reassigned from watching Stark, to New Mexico, which ties into the bonus scene after the end credits. The Captain America shield also makes a cameo, in the form of a table wedge of sorts, for Tony’s gigantic arc reactor, he shoves it underneath one side to help level it out.

Hammer finally clues into the fact that Vanko is only using him and his resources to help further his own personal vendetta with Stark, so he attempts to “muscle” him into doing what he wants. Great idea, you’re going to intimidate a huge crazy tattooed Russian genius, that happened to also spend 15 years in a Siberian prison, good luck.

The final battle lacks in comparison to what the Monaco grand Prix scene could have been, it still serves the general purpose of the story, but comes with a few small plot holes.

Fury’s last scene with Stark really sums up what Iron Man’s involvement with the Avengers will be, which was somewhat surprising.

Iron Man 2 is very successful at being a sequel, but it is not however the mind blowing experience you’ve been promised. I’ve heard some people say it's the Dark knight to it’s Batman Begins, not true. It came in about the same as what the first one did, maybe slightly better, it was not by any means worse, but also not a huge improvement either.

Biggest problem for me, was favreau beefing up his part as Happy Hogan for no real reason, and the lack of screen time for Whiplash, which Rourke did an amazing job bringing to life.

I'm giving Iron Man 2 an overall 6.5/10