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Runamuck

Thoughts after seeing the Prince of Persia movie

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Ok, so I have just seen the movie on DVD, and I’m sorry if there is already a thread about this somewhere. Mostly picked this movie up out of curiosity and because I had already bought the LEGO sets because I thought they would be useful for multiple themes. I like the movie, there is nothing too overly stupid in it for me, nothing intriguing or special, but a nice movie in my opinion. But I have a few thoughts on the LEGO sets after seeing it.

Mostly I think that the continuity is a bit messed up in most of the sets, and Dastan’s wardrobe could be a little different. If they had created a west and white shirt for him he could use it if most of the sets.

So, going by rough order of continuity of the movie, spoilers will probably show up:

The fight for the dagger

One of the sets with only few continuity problems. I think that a couple or Alamut guards would fit better with the scene than the merchant and camel, but the merchant is a rather useful thing. I don’t remember Asoka, the guy with the time dagger, looking all that fancy in the movie compared to his figure. Dastan’s clothes actually fit the scene.

The ostrich race

Why does Dastan not wear a shirt? The bare-chested torso is useful though. It could use another ostrich rider because Dastan doesn’t ride one in the movie. Also the weapons are oddly enough freely accessible compared to the scene in the movie. Some of the problems could though be explained by keeping a price point.

Desert attack

Very messy continuity here. With the skeleton it looks more like the entrance to the valley of the slaves, but the Hassansins ambush fits better with the scene at the temple. Also switching the Hassansins with those from 7573 would make a lot more sense.

Battle of Alamut

As I mentioned earlier I think the Hassansins from 7569 fit better, the sword guy died earlier from a knife to the forehead, and I don’t think the claw and blade guy was seen again after the temple ambush. The axe guy and the arrow guy would fit the scenes much better. The arrow cart seems to fit much better with the attack in the start of the movie (we see some flying fireballs), than the part where they are digging for the sands of time. Why is Seso, the knife thrower, equipped with a sword rather than a knife? I guess it’s a really big knife. Also the on the box so called Alamut guards look more like the Persians, rather than the more tan clad guards from the start of the movie, though they were probably replaced by the invaders at this point.

Quest against time

The second half is pure Prince of Persia, but the first half is more like some leftover from the Indiana Jones design group. I guess that is to make it more interesting and bigger. The snake Hassansin looks freakier as a LEGO figure than he does in the movie. Judging from the figure I thought he was blind, and not just had some very pale blue eyes.

It’s not really that I’m complaining about the sets, they are very fine in my opinion. I just think that some of these things are a bit odd. Most other movie lines don’t make continuity messes, I think. They got almost all the Hassansins, but missed the whip and bomb guys. In general the figures are rather good.

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I've not seen PoP or brought any of the sets, so I can't really comment on accuracy but it's likely to do with playability and/or costs.

I really like the idea about the thread. Comparing the sets with the actual scenes.

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I liked the movie. No masterpiece but not so bad as a lot of people said.

For the sets, I think Lego got some rough outlines of the action scenes to work with and creating the sets.

Maybe even some early drafts of the script. In this case it could be possible that the sets are accurate but the movie scene was changed while filming or later in the editing room.

On the other hand since PoP was a new movie nobody wants to spoil the story or twists in it by a toy. The Indy sets for Crystal Skull suffered the same inaccuracy and I believe that the PotC Sets for the fourth Film will also. But all of these movie Lego Sets are well designed, accurate or not :wink:

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I always considered the first half of quest of time to be more in the spirit of the games than the movie, so not necessarily out of place.

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I've not seen the movie yet :sceptic:

Silly me ! Though I have played the Games and have three Prince of Persia sets, Fight for the Dagger, Ostrich Race and Quest against time.

I also think, just like you Jamercury that that last set really is in the Game spirit in my opinion.

Besides, beeing accurate or not, these sets are truly terrific ! :classic: The Ostrich Race is defenatly one of my favorites ! :thumbup:

Edited by Geertos13

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The Prince of Persia sets all look very cool, but somehow this seems (at the moment, at least) like a superficial license with little staying power and little LEGO can do to make it interesting. The sets seem to be going for clearance everywhere - everywhere but here in Singapore. Lots of the sets do look very interesting, in terms of the architecture, minifigures and specialised elements. However, it's just not worth the price tag, in my opinion, and there isn't that richness of legacy behind it that Star Wars, Harry Potter, Batman and Indiana Jones as licenses had. If the Batman and Indiana Jones lines went dead/dormant so quickly, I don't think PoP stands much of a chance.

Your comparison of the sets with the scenes from the movies is very interesting. Plissken is exactly right in saying that the material LEGO was presented with may have been far from the final version we see in the movie. Usually, it's sections of the script, but more importantly conceptual art/models or renderings. That's why there seem to be so many inconsistencies with the sets. I suspect this may also be the case with the new Pirates of the Caribbean sets based on the fourth film.

At any rate, I'm crossing my fingers that Toys R Us or any local department stores give up and dump all the PoP LEGO sets in a discount bin somewhere. :sadnew:

Edited by Jedd the Jedi

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Yes, it sounds rather feasible that they actually didn’t have the final product to work with. Just like with licensed video games it’s often more about release dates than 100% accuracy.

I was trying to mostly pick issues that weren’t related to downscaling, up scaling things or adding play features for the sets, hence why it’s mostly continuity.

It could maybe be interesting to make similar comparisons between movies and the sets based on them. I mean, stuff like that the Indiana Jones Shanghai Chase includes the diamond that was lost in the club earlier or other oddities like why the Cairo swordsman uses a troll sword rather than the much more appropriate scimitar that already existed.

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