The Philippine Online Chronicles

There’s been recent hullabaloo about Roger Ebert’s claims that video games are not art. Thus far we haven’t addressed that here in Metakritiko because it didn’t seem worth addressing. It’s an old issue; years back Time had published an issue that discussed innovations in video games and even had an essay where the author said he cried while playing Halo 2. This was in reference to the claim that video games would not be art until they inspired tears in gamers.

Video Games as Poetry

I had a similar moment while playing Halo 2. And Halo 3. But I didn’t need Halo 2 to prove to me that video games were art. And if the distinguished Mr. Ebert (whom I count as one of the movie critics that I aspire to be like) hasn’t sat down and played video games enough, games like Halo, Gears of War, Mass Effect, Bioshock, Grand Theft Auto, Splinter Cell, Dead Space, and so many other games that combine gameplay, story, and cinematic techniques that make unforgettable experiences that strike at the gamer’s heart like the greatest film, poetry, or music, then it’s his loss.

I am on this long spiel about the art of video games because well before Ebert started talking trash against a young but much-loved art form, I knew that games could elevate to the level of poetry. This is because Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time felt like a poem. From the opening cinematics and the beautifully crafted voiceover, I felt that I was witnessing a masterpiece. When I think of that game I get nostalgic, like I get nostalgic of the first time that I saw a great film, or the first time I heard a great song.

I knew, as I was going through it, that it was something special, that it would change my view not only of video games, but of art, architecture, design, and storytelling. It expanded the way not only of how I thought of platforming, navigating mazes and climbing up spires, but also how art could be created in the digital medium, and how stories could be told linearly and interactively at the same time, to great dramatic effect.

Game to Film

When I heard that Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, which reinvented the video game franchise, would be made into a film, I was ecstatic. The track record for games being adapted to film is pretty dismal. But I have maintained that it will take time for the great video game adaptation to appear. It took comics many many years to reach the point where they are now, and it’s still pretty hit and miss. So I felt that, despite all that Uwe Boll has done to dash the hopes of video game fans, and the sad, bad adaptation of Max Payne and other movies, the continuing attempts at game adaptations were good for both art forms and would soon enough produce movies worth watching.

Jake Gyllenhaal was cast as the prince. Ok, so he doesn’t look Persian, but I thought, hey I could live with that. When did Charlton Heston ever look Mexican? So I accepted that, along with the weird British accent. Not to say that British accents are weird, as I quite like hearing them, but am I the only person that finds it weird that when films want to evoke the past and majesty and stuff, they have their characters take on British accents?

They cast Gemma Arterton as the Princess, whom I assumed to be Princess Farah, a character that not only the prince I played as, but I myself fell in love with. Her interactions with the prince were feisty but she was smart and every bit as strong and independent as the prince. And then Ben Kingsley, who I thought would be playing the evil Vizier. Seemed perfect as Kingsley can do both regal and smarmy equally well.

And then information started to leak. There was no Vizier, Kingsley was playing the King’s brother. Arterton was not Farah, but some other princess called Tamina. And the Prince now had a name, Dastan. It seemed that the film was totally abandoning the great elements in the game, and that it would turn into yet another failure to keep true to the spirit of the game while adapting to the big screen.

At the onset of the film Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time we meet the young Dastan as a street urchin. Then it plucks him out of thievery and turns him into an adopted prince, yet another departure from game mythos that I couldn’t help but note. And as the film set off, I was wondering where the game I enjoyed was, and what was it they were showing me now. All I hoped for was that it would just be a long string of Parkour sequences that would keep me entertained.

My hopes were not only met, but my original misgivings were proven unfounded as the film unfolded.

In its details, it is glaringly different from the game which it is based. That had the evil Vizier trying to gain control of the Dagger of Time, which the prince had and was trying to protect. The Dagger of Time would allow the Vizier to manipulate time, bending it to his whim. With the Prince was Farah, who was entrusted with protecting the dagger, and with whom he would fall in love. The set-up was that basic, and from there platforming and problem-solving, nimble jumping through a gorgeous palace and on to a final standoff with the Vizier. All the while when you made a mistake you could use the Dagger of Time and turn back time to a point before you committed your mistake. It’s this effect that was showed off in the film’s trailers and is used to good visual effect in the film.

Stop, Dagger Time

The film is increasingly more complex, with three brothers in the fray, Dastan being framed for murder, treachery and deceit among the brothers, a guild of Hassansins, all kinds of location changes and massive battle sequences, and at the very heart of it a story of political machinations built around the magical Dagger of Time. What it did keep was the feisty princess and the young prince who must team-up, despite their differences, to protect the Dagger of Time and the world.

In being adapted to film, Prince of Persia benefits from this largeness of scale, giving it the feel of a big swashbuckling adventure. With Jerry Bruckheimer producing, we can be clear with the kind of treatment we will be getting. It’s no mistake that this is being released in the summer. It’s a big summer blockbuster that shoots for young and old, offers action with little hints of humor, and generally skews more towards spectacle.

As spectacle Prince of Persia is wildly successful. Director Mike Newell provides us with some great visuals, from the intense parkour chase scenes (though they don’t measure up to the parkour chases of Casino Royale or the Bourne flicks) to the jaw-dropping shots of the ancient cities. I was wishing that the camera would linger a bit longer on those establishing shots because these cities are so beautifully designed, such grand eye candy that it seemed a shame that they should only occupy a few seconds of the film.

Going for the feel of a swashbuckler, we get action scenes that do justice to the game, though there could have been more scenes with climbing and platforming. But then those may have appealed more to gamers like me than the general audience that this film is shooting for. In any case, the climbing scenes that are there display the Prince’s agility and are incredibly accurate representations of specific movements that can be found in the game, and I as a gamer had to get excited seeing it.

Beyond that there are some remarkable scenes, like the opening storming of the Holy City of Alamuth where Dastan scales the wall through the use of arrows that are shot just seconds ahead of him. And there’s a projectile shoot-out that feels like it was taken from a Michael Bay movie (this is a compliment, in this context), the camera work to rival the shoot-out scenes in Bad Boys 2.

And though I was pointing out how different so many things are here, the heart of the Prince of Persia mythos (at least in its current resurrection) has always had to do with both time and love, and the sacrifices we must make, the costs that we realize far too late. It plays these themes in perfectly, though there are some scenes that inspire a facepalm, for example when things are urgent, when enemies are breathing down your neck and you should be out fighting them or doing something, they sneak in a romantic moment. But these scenes are offset by the film’s generally good pacing and action.

It is pretty obvious at this point that I enjoyed myself, and that as a video gamer I have no reservations about calling this one of the best game-to-film adaptations ever, a clear sign that it can be done, and that with the right amount of thinking, the right approach to the material, the ability to perceive the main themes and what’s important in the game, and then transform that into a cinematic experience, game-to-film adaptations can be a great genre.

Shooting for Spectacle

As a critic though, I do have my reservations about it. I enjoyed myself immensely, but probably because I have been weaned on Jerry Bruckheimer action spectacles. This is a big Hollywood popcorn flick, and as such it casts a broad net, attempts to appeal to the largest possible audience. In doing so it works in comic relief that works at times, and fails miserably at others.

Alfred Molina gamely portrays a shady businessman, and he pulls off a number of funny lines, but his role as comic relief gets tiring wears out its welcome the more he’s given to say. He’s fun, and I love his passion for ostriches (you gotta watch the movie to get this one, I’m telling you, it’s worth it) but by the end, when things feel dire and you feel that the movie should be moving towards a sense of gravitas, they still have him spewing out jokes that are just out of place.

The film takes a number of twists and turns which generally work for it. But I often felt that it was working with a 24-paradigm, where if you pulled the bait-and-switch quick enough and successively, then people wouldn’t have time to think about whether the things that were happening were logical and they would just go along with it.

The characters never really develop beyond stereotype because the plot is so propulsive and it feels like the movie is running all over the place, again pulling one trick out its sleeve after another to keep us moving and keep us guessing, but never settling enough so that we can think and feel.

Then again, it is a big Bruckheimer action pic, so thinking and feeling aren’t really big priorities. The aim is to bash us over the head with spectacle, to go big with action scenes, effects, the expected romantic subplot, and a twisty-turny whodunit. I have to sneak in a bit about the vague Iraq War reference here, as the opening invasion of Alamuth is precluded on a suspicion that they are building weapons. It doesn’t seem that they are trying to veil the reference, but it doesn’t really push through with any other points, other than it was a treacherous and lowdown, varmint-y thing to do.

Despite all of these critical objections that I may have, and the fact that this is just another one of those big Hollywood summer blockbusters, I enjoyed Prince of Persia. It was a good two hours of fun, swashbuckling action-adventure, and a deluge of great imagery.

Sand and Water

Prince of Persia has its feet firmly in the mythos of the series with its strong sense of the spirit of it, while it reaches for the clouds as a summer blockbuster. There’s a constant return to images of both sand and water, two key elements that the games also kept coming back to. We see it constantly used here, both at the literal and figurative levels.

Sand is time, water is life (quite literally in the game, you drink water to replenish your health bar), and the right combination of the two here help to provide a cinematic experience. Put sand and water together and you could have come up with mud, sludge, or even worse quicksand, but Prince of Persia emerges as an enchanting action-adventure that will please anyone looking for a good popcorn flick.