Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time - Movie Review

Gosh, Summer hasn't even begun and it already feels the Summer movie season is losing steam. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time wouldn't've been our first choice but it was just about the only choice in the multiplex - Shrek would've been our other choice but we weren't in a Shrek mood. Not yet, anyway.

Oh, don't get me wrong, Prince of Persia is a lot of fun. Once again, I'm astounded by the imagination that goes into putting the best CGI around up there on the screen. But I found myself longing for something that was real - though the desert scenes are impressive, they can't compare to Lawrence of Arabia when you know that nothing in Lawrence was faked. (Well, almost nothing, I suppose. Hollywood is about nothing if not the art of illusion.) It's a thrilling ride and Jake Gyllenhaal has a career as an action hero if he wants it but he's still too pretty for my tastes. Gemma Arterton is sure purty but I don't remember her in Quantum of Solace and I doubt I'll remember she was in this after a while. A nice surprise: Alfred Molina as a member of a Middle-Eastern Tea Party, so to speak. But it's not top Summer movie stuff - it all seems kind of second rate, as if we're marking time for something better to come along. It'll do until then but it sure seems like it's gonna be a long Summer.