I review a movie game tie in which isn't really great but it ticks all the right boxes.
Let’s say this first: The movie, it is not the greatest thing you will ever see. It tells a story you’ve heard before. You will not feel new things, or discover anything. It’s hollywood drivel in many ways.
But in one of the early scenes, for no reason, the camera swings out and upwards, and then moves down towards a gate. Gamers would know the gate as “an objective”. This was a technique used in the original sands of time to quickly show where the objective was, and what kinds of challenges waited in between. There is no reason for this sort of cinematography. It is a hat tip which shows that this movie; it is based on a game.
Later, the protagonist climbs on top of a conspicuous looking wooden construction, and the camera pans around him. While I hated the game, this is clearly from Assassin’s Creed. The protagonist from Assassin’s Creed is also fairly clearly a retarded prince, so it’s fair game.
And so it is throughout the movie. There are plenty of areas where the film uses the visuals and the aesthetics of the game, and unlike the garish attempts of Doom, this is subtle, effective, and shows that enough people liked the game to structure the movie in this way.
Then there is the Prince. They couldn’t have made the character more perfect, from the crazy jumping in his childhood to his.. err.. crazy jumping in adulthood. His dedication to tricks and acrobatics, his sheepish smile; I’d love to have this guy as my Avatar.
This is why you should go watch the movie: because it is based on a game, and it does this well...