Prince of Persia gets a trailer.

Considering the obvious expense on display, this trailer is shockingly flat. You'd think that Prince of Persia would be a natural fit for a cinematic adaptation, what with all of the jumping and hack-slash action on which to hang any old Arabian Nights-type narrative around. But Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time doesn't even look fun in a cheese-ball B-movie kind of way. There is no sense of fun or wonder to this adventure. And really, while some may not hold him in as high regard as I do, Orlando Bloom would have knocked this kind of thing out of the park. Brendan Fraser has constantly proven that he can pull this off in his sleep. Jake Glyllenhaal is no Orlando Bloom and he's no Brendan Fraiser. And, perhaps equally fatal, Gemma Arterton cannot hold a candle to the effortless sex-appeal and class provided by Rachel Weisz. Director Mike Newell is a mixed bag. He produced Al Pacino's best performance since the 1970s with Donnie Brasco, but otherwise floundered for the last twelve years save for the fourth Harry Potter film. Yes, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire worked out fine, but the book was so bloody good that even Ulli Lommel couldn't have screwed it up (as it is, he made a B+ movie out of an A+ book). We'll see...

Scott Mendelson