Beautiful Blasphemy

Video gamers are a zealous bunch. We have our own religion, a god for every genre, our legacies, our defectors, conflicted heroes, the full house. It's sorta like a Greek mythology kind of think. The religion was dying, wasting away... the Consoles were corrupting the once holy land, drawing the faithful away. We stuck to our Need For Speeds and watched helplessly as Sundays became longer and our eyes less red.

Then, unexpected, a hero rose. The legends spoke of a prince in pixel... of the treacherous vizier and the kidnapped princess. The accounts were hazy, some said he was the first Platformer, others dismissed him as just another Sidescroller. Soon a new generation of Gamers rose, and they did not know him. Soon we DOS-ers were left wondering if he really did exist. Till he came. In glorious 3D. With an incredible story, with extraordinary agility, with charming wit and of course, with BLOOM effects. The world rose as one, and many bits were rearranged in the One matrix. They set, reset and swapped till only the main diagonal remained. He gave us an Identity (matrix).

The point being, for a whole new generation of gamers, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was the original pill, the dope, whatever. This was hallowed ground. You do not walk into Ayodhya and put up a banner on Global warning where the temple/mandir/both/neither stood. Granted, its good, but dude! Put that somewhere else!

The PoP movie is good, it really is. Jake Last-name-fought-with-tongue is exactly how you'd imagined the Prince. The guy we all wanted to be, shut up in our rooms days at a stretch. The vizier, well, could you have found a better actor?! But otherwise, the story is a complete joke - granted, video games don't have story material for feature films, but they could have at least built up on what they had!

Actually, deep down, its not the story either. The PoP Storyline is too convoluted to market to a mainstream audience, and I understand that. It's just that, when you've spent hours perfecting those wall walks and those perfect time-manipulated combos, its a bit of a let-down when none of it comes on screen. Yes, it is an amazing, stylish and perfectly entertaining movie - yet it is not the movie of the game, but a poorly misunderstood spin-off. The dreams of a creed were misinterpreted and misunderstood, sadly willfully.

One note about video gamers. They hate to be misunderstood. Prepare to be Pwned, soon.