May 2010

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

  • Title: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
  • IMDB: link

What do you say about a film which includes a “dagger of time” and magic sand which powers its time traveling capabilities? Yeah…magic sand!? Let’s get this out of the way right from the start – Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is ridiculous. Yes, utterly and completely ridiculous. It is however, at times, also fun.

Trying to find a good movie adapted from a video game is akin to finding a boy band who has aged well over the years. It just doesn’t happen all that often. Director Mike Newell and screenwirters Boaz Yakin, Doug Miro, and Carlo Bernard attempt to adapt the video game franchise created by Jordan Mechner for the big screen. How successful they are is debatable.

The story centers around Prince Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal), a street uchin who as a child was adopted into the family of King Sharaman (Ronald Pickup) and now is one of three princes of the Persian Empire. Although miscast (he’s neither an action star nor Persian) Gyllenhall relies on his charm to provide the kind of scruffy likable hero the film needs to build it’s silly premises around.

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Justice League: Generation Lost #2

justice-league-generation-lost-2-coverI love this comic. Other than one complaint (which I’ll get to in a second) I’m totally on board for Keith Giffen’s tale.

Maxwell Lord has made the world forget his existence. Not only that, he’s disgraced the few heroes who remember him in the eyes of the rest of the DCU. Ice is seen as unstable, Fire was let go from Checkmate, Captain Atom is now a renegade, and Booster Gold…well, he’s still Booster Gold. Booster’s reputation was so tarnished Max didn’t even need to worry about him. Though the change Max makes to Ted Kord‘s death is perhaps the deepest cut of all.

Max Lord is free to start anew and the only ones who might stand in his way are seen as lunatics at best and unstable loose canons at worse. This has all the makings of a comic I will gladly pick up every two weeks!

Now for my one complaint – Guy Gardner. I had assumed that Guy would be introduced sometime during the series, as he is here, but that he would be part of the original team who would remember Max. Sadly that’s not the case.

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Secret Avengers #1

secret-avengers-1

The post-Norman Osborne Avengers relaunches continue with Steve Rogers‘ own black ops team of Secret Avengers. The first issue does a good job of giving you a feel for each member (Black Widow and Valkyrie, War Machine, Moon Knight and Ant-Man, Sharon Carter, and Beast) while providing flashbacks on how Rogers convinced the more reluctant members to join the team. As first issues go its solid. Not great, but solid (though the final panel did made me wince). Worth a look.

[Marvel $3.99]

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Green Lantern #54

Green-Lantern-54

I thought I taw a puddy tat. I did! I did tee a puddy tat! There’s a new Red Lantern in town and he’s a cat. Okay, that’s kinda cool. I think I’ll name him Fluffy. Yeah, Fluffy the Red Lantern. Bask in the awesomeness of Fluffy the Red Lantern! Sadly we also need to discuss the story… The mystery of the white lantern deepens as we are shown images of other entities like Parallax and Ion. Great, there are more of them? I think I feel a migraine coming on. So to recap: Red Lantern Fluffy – awesome, more multi-colored space symbiotes – not so much. Hit-and-Miss.

[DC $2.99]

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Dark Wolverine #86

dark-wolverine-86-coverI’ll be honest, I’ve never been Wolverine‘s biggest fan. Although I like Logan well-enough I still consider him the most overrated character in the entire Marvel Universe, and perhaps all of comics. I certainly wouldn’t rank him in the same list with Spidey, Cap, or Shellhead. I’ve been less than glued to his war with Romulus, and although I liked the character of Daken as part of the Dark Avengers on his own he’s far less charming.

All that said, this issue does deliver its fair share of action, Logan faced with making a hard forced admission, and Daken proving once again the kind of sociopath that fears and respects no one. And then you have the unsatisfying conclusion. Sigh.

I understand the appeal of a character who can do anything at the drop of a hat, but it seems a bit odd to me that of all the characters from Dark Reign it’s Daken who is getting to keep his own book. It would be as if DC gave the Joker his own comic (wait, they did that). Hit-and-Miss.

[Marvel $2.99]

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