A trailer for the Prince of Persia movie adaptation has been released. My initial impressions are quite positive. So far, it looks like they have nailed the setting and feel of the game, as well as having a decent storyline set out. However, trailers can be quite misleading. It will be interesting to see how Disney does with this, but so far things look great!
WARNING: This review contains spoilers.
So this movie took me by surprise when I watched it with my mother on Friday. Everyone has been telling me how good of a movie it was, but I was still a bit skeptical. That is, until I actually saw it.
I just saw Orphan last night. I went in expecting nothing. I saw the trailer, read a description, and neither of my friends said it was good or bad. I had no predispositions about the film. I bought my large Cherry Coke and stepped into the theater. As expected of a late Tuesday night showing, there was no one in the entire theater 5 minutes before showing. We grabbed some back-center seats and watched the last few stragglers come in and sit down. The lights dimmed. The movie started.
The opening credits showed some sort of demonic imagery painted in black light. If they wanted to make a film about a creepy child, this probably wasn’t the way to start. You’re supposed to start with something calming and happy… it adds to the mindfuck.
Speaking of which, the opening scene was a mindfuck. The scene starts off with the mother rolling in a wheelchair, pregnant, happily going to get her baby delivered. I don’t want to spoil anything, but the trailer, the movie description, and the basic premise of the film seem to dictate this will be a dead baby. The scene was forced and unnecessarily gory and weird.
The whole film progresses with forced suspense. At every turn is a camera trick or random loud sound effect. Maybe this is “good film-making” and I’m not aware of it, but this suspense seems random and unnecessary. At this point there had been no character development, little plot, and a relatively danger-free mood. Most of the other “formulaic scares” were not suspenseful.
Each of the characters Esther, the Orphan, seems to target are people who have already bullied her or, within the realms of a child’s logic, would seem like an enemy anyway. A bitchy grade school girl, the brother who resents Esther as an adopted child and rejects her as a member of their family, and even the nun who has done nothing wrong to Esther, yet was put into situations where Esther might feel wronged. The scenes where Esther gives them grief (killing them, brutally wounding them, or otherwise) is not suspenseful or scary, but rather, satisfying to some regard.
The end of the film was fairly uninteresting. The ‘twist’ was predictable. And weird. And not in a good way. Most of the strange or downright creepy things this child does is turned around in a single “eureka”-moment revelation from an arbitrary character. The entire audience let out a collective “ugh.” The twist seemed like an out so the filmmakers could get off the hook for a lot of freaky stuff. (For instance, Escher, a child, tries to seduce her ‘father.’ This is fairly controversial, except the twist, [spoiler]that Escher is actually an adult with a growth disorder[/spoiler] is both lame and removes/explains a large amount of the film’s awkward scenes.) The twist killed the mood of the entire film, rather than improving it. In the few minutes that followed, the film degenerated into a final-boss-fight-in-the-dark that’s not really that interesting (a done-to-death standard for horror movies, I suppose).
The plot was overall a little stiff and boring, with empty scares and pointless suspense. However, the film was still fun and probably freaky enough to warrant a watch, although I wouldn’t spend money on a theater ticket. There are some great lines, and the dialogue is okay. The acting is great, especially the child actors’. Orphan is, all in all, entertaining and a fine rental.
Quote:
Esther: If I find out that you’re lying, I’ll cut your hairless little prick off before you even figure out what it’s for.