Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time *

Director: Mike Newell
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton
Ben Kingsley, Alfred Molina, Toby Kebbell, Reece Ritchie
Richard Coyle, Steve Toussaint

At first glance Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is yet another shallow video game adaptation meant to entertain youngsters with its giant set pieces, special effects and numbing loudness; but look closer and you will find a distasteful "oh well" approach to American foreign policy and media brainwashing.
Set in ancient Persia, it centers on Dastan (Gyllenhaal) an orphan of humble origins adopted by the king (Ronald Pickup) and raised like a prince.
As the movie begins, Dastan and his brothers (Kebbell and Coyle) prepare to invade the scared city of Alamut on the grounds that they have been manufacturing weapons for Persia's enemies.
Not long after they have invaded the city, Dastan figures out it was all a trick devised by the story's actual villain (quite easy to discover considering the makeup artists all but put a "villain" sign on his face). He also discovers the actual reason for the invasion was to find an ancient dagger that has the power of turning back time; but before he can become a hero, he's been framed for murder, becomes a fugitive and finds himself traveling with Princess Tamina of Alamut (Arterton) to reclaim his rightful place.
The problem with the movie isn't how miscast it is (Gyllenhaal has absolutely no hero potential despite the bigger muscles) or how badly it uses its good actors (Arterton could've been iconic and Molina just remind us that a brilliant actor can make almost anything seem better than it is). The problem isn't the action sequences either, although their Aladdin with ADD aesthetics continue to highlight the same brand of flashy, quick editing Jerry Bruckheimer's productions have become known for, which shows even less than it says.
The biggest problem with the film is how it uses all these elements to thinly disguise it's "let's move on" views on the Iraq invasion.
At first, the story seems to be taking a critical aim at how the Bush government (and its allies) handled a situation that quickly got out of their hands. We are presented with facts that almost entirely resemble the search for weapons of mass destruction led by the American army on Iraqi soil and how a few government people quickly created an entire war as diversion from their real aim (the dagger in the movie, oil in real life).
It's not even necessary to mention nepotism and the similarities between powerful political families and royalty to see how much the main plot drew from history.
But once the central dagger comes up, viewers are provided with the sort of device that could work in two ways.
Its ability to go back in time enables the audience to fantasize about a world where things can be undone and evil is quickly fixed. In a way this could provide some sort of escapism from the already brutal reality raging outside the theater.
But why then, introduce this element of correction into an allegory that had such recent effects? If it doesn't want to deal with reality why then remind us of it?
It's only then when the movie's real intention seems to come out and by suggesting mystical artifacts can fix our wrongs it's empowering the video game generation to think of technology as their own way of escaping reality and consciously grant themselves absolution.
What's the difference between the dagger and digital video recording or personalized online content? In the same way that Prince Dastan can simply rewind and fix the past, we now have the power to control the information we get and simply fast forward through the news or ignore a disturbing article and conceal the world from our already limited perception.
Prince of Persia isn't about entertaining as much as it's about creating a false idea of our involvement in the world.
The only magical thing about this movie is that very few seem to notice it's essentially propaganda.

Clash of the Titans *1/2

Director: Louis Leterrier
Cast: Sam Worthington, Gemma Arterton, Mads Mikkelsen
Jason Flemyng, Polly Walker, Hans Matheson, Luke Evans
Alexa Davalos, Nicolas Hoult, Danny Huston
Ralph Fiennes, Liam Neeson

Imagine for one second that you're living in ancient Greece, with no television, internet or movies and all you have to entertain yourself are stories.
These stories of course won't tell you about mundane events but about things so fantastical that not only do they make your jaw drop to the floor but also serve as explanations of what's going on in the world around you.
Now before getting too deep into the concept of myth, imagine that centuries later you get these stories, but they are being told by someone who has great editing software, satisfying CGI but not an ounce of imagination.
This would sum up the experience of Clash of the Titans, a remake of the 1981 camp classic which tells of the struggles between men and deities in ancient times.
Sam Worthington (the go to guy for ordinary men-with killer calves-turned unexpected hero) plays Perseus, a demigod, son of Zeus (Neeson) and a mortal woman, who is chosen by the people of Argos to save them from the wrath of the Kraken.
The beast will be released by, god of the underworld, Hades (Fiennes) to teach humans not to defy the rulers of the Olympus.
Of course Hades has secret plans of his own (how could he not when played with such delicious wickedness by Fiennes?) and while Perseus has his adventures down below, the gods go through their own drama.
It should suffice to sum up the film's quality to say that you often might want more of the Olympian drama (probably owed to the quality of the actors playing them) than the struggles of Perseus who seems to fulfill cliché more often than prophecy.
Worthington lacks qualities to make his character interesting; when someone tells him that he has the "best of both worlds" they must be referring to sculpture and athleticism, because he lacks any inkling of humanity and doesn't have the grandiosity to be godlike. The other human characters fare equally, with princess Andromeda (Davalos) being little more than an ornament (while straying greatly from the myth and the original film) and the people Perseus encounters being nothing more than an assortment of great actors (Mikkelsen, Walker and Postlethwaite come to mind particularly) in tepid roles.
Perhaps the film's biggest flaw is in fact its constant ability to underwhelm. With or without added visual dimensions the film never transports you to another place. Visuals for this kind of movie should feel mythical, the ones here are yet another version of what was done in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and 300 to greater effect.
Action sequences are done in the recurrent style of making as many cuts as you can, which never gives us time to grasp the unique aspects of the creatures Perseus fights and every moment that promises excitement is minimized by the director's tendency to make everything seem rushed and easy.
How can a story of its kind be passed on to others when there is no sense of heroism or any special qualities to it?
In the end Clash of the Titans sadly never seems able to comprehend what epic means.

Quantum of Solace ***

Director: Marc Forster
Cast: Daniel Craig
Mathieu Amalric, Olga Kurylenko, Gemma Arterton
Jeffrey Wright, Giancarlo Giannini, Judi Dench

It is only logical, and fair, that as times change so do iconic film characters along with our perception of them. James Bond, once the symbol of nihilist Imperialism, decadent sexual freedom and the alpha male role model of choice by men and women has evolved, in just two films, into the ultimate kind of movie character: the human one.
Kicking off (literally) where Martin Campbell's "Casino Royale" left off, this film starts with a chase sequence along Lake Cuomo, Italy, as Bond (Craig) transports Mr. White (Jesper Christensen) to be interrogated about a recently discovered organization called Quantum.
After revealing that they have people "everywhere" White makes a surprising escape with the aid of an MI6 double agent.
Preoccupied with the intelligence leak, Bond is given precarious clearance to follow their only lead, which takes them to Haiti and a man named Dominic Greene (Almaric) who on the surface looks like an environment friendly philantropist, but might also have deep ties with Quantum and their involvement in a coup d'état set to occur in Bolivia.
While the plot is a continuation of "Casino Royale", especially in Bond's search for the truth behind Vesper Lynd's betrayal and the uncovering of the big bad guys, those expecting a thematic sequel will be highly disappointed.
While "Royale" was all about class and unconventional, almost diplomatic, ways of accomplishing the mission, "Quantum of Solace" isn't afraid to get down and dirty.
In fact it's what it does most of the time; it features action sequence after sequence where Bond moves with disdain for anything that gets in his way, including boats, planes and cars, along with several people who he kills before interrogating (in what becomes a sort of dark joke within the plot).
Fighting hard against what obviously becomes a revenge, Bond must battle with himself without jeopardizing what might be one of the most important missions of his career.
At times the film is a throwback to the first Bond movies in terms of visual style and design, especially with the trademark Bond girl that comes in the shape of Agent Fields (Arterton). Still no Q or Monneypenny though.
But in other elements the film is almost in the extreme opposite of the corniness found in the elaborate plans of the villains which were more about being a pain in the ass for Bond, than actual machiavelic devices of destruction.
In Greene and his truly chilling plan, we find ourselves before the first Bond villain who might exist in real life. Greene moves among political and economic circles where the policies being dealt among the "bad" and "good" guys are scarily reminiscent of dealings going on in actual governments.
CIA agent Felix Leiter (Wright) must face the fact that sometimes the job isn't exactly made of the idealistic dreams kids are brought upon and even M (Dench) finds herself deciding whether to compromise her duty as a British citizen or as a human being.
While everything in "Casino Royale" was more cerebral (which makes simply puzzling and outstanding how they managed to make poker seem so exciting) this film works at a more visceral level.
It's almost rebellious; even a staging of Puccini's "Tosca" shines for the unexpected, bizarreness of its postmodernist setting.
"Quantum of Solace" is at the core a clash of the old and the new, a juxtaposition of encountered feelings, even the theme song (which weirdly pairs Alicia Keys and Jack White) is a collision of elements that shouldn't work together, but somehow do.
"I find you horribly efficient" reveals Bolivian agent Camille Montes (Kurylenko who could kill anyone with her sumptuous tan) to Bond after finding that he, like the labyrintine plot and Forster's somewhat unsteady direction, always manage to get the work done.
Most of the film relies on the power of Daniel Craig who has completely made the part his own and has become a true force of nature. In the previous film he acted like a man who falls in love going against everything he believes in, here he plays James like a wounded animal.
He is as ruthless as he is charming, which might work against the idea of Bond as a perfect hero and bring him down to Earth as an imperfect human being with an inescapable ambiguity.
He doesn't bother with being glamorous and makes his way relying on a selfconfidence that makes impossible for anyone to say no to him. His behavior is so uninterested at times that he doesn't even lust after Camille, setting a sexual tension the film more than lives up to.
The only other person who competes with Craig here on terms of screen command is the always magnificent Dench whose character has become more of a central player and one might even say the source of some Freudian subplot regarding how to deal with authority when you care about them.
While the screenplay (by Paul Haggis, Neal Purvis & Robert Wade) works hard to turn Bond into a globalized version of what he used to be, Craig (who relies on everything he can as an actor, just watch his deliciously wicked smirk after he know he did something wrong) never lets the iconic character completely vanish.
Scarily appropriate for the time of its release, "Quantum of Solace" is sometimes uncomfortable to watch, its attitude becomes blasé and one might argue it follows its lead character's mood.
As the world faces economic recession and there is underlying fear everywhere, a scene where Bond checks himself into a luxury hotel despite a request to be subtle comes off as a disturbing moment of indifference, even if the plot then turns in his favor as he becomes a sort of Socialist hero.
The series now faces the dilemma of going back to the escapism it lived by, or moving forward with the gritty realism that has become staple for action films this century.
Whatever their choice is the truth remains that Craig has become someone you will follow, sometimes even despite what your best judgment tells you.