The orphaned boy Dastan was taken from the streets by King Sharaman, who saw that he was destined for greatness. Flash forward and he has become the titular prince and a fierce and resourceful warrior over time and, as you’d expect, is pretty nifty when it comes to leaping across pits, grabbing onto ledges and pulling himself up.

It has to be said that, in this department, Prince of Persia excels. It comes across almost a bit too parkour at times, but one can’t complain when at least we’re watching real stunts – even if everything else is fake, at the very least there’s a stuntman on a wire, jumping around. In actual fact, since the likes of Blade II and the Star Wars prequels showed us just how bad CGI stuntmen could be, Hollywood seems to have stayed clear whenever possible, which is nice. The film generally looks very pretty – the special effects, sets, costuming and makeup are all better than the Pirates movies, anyway – and at the very least, it looks great on the big screen. They’ve done a decent job in the editing department too, thank heavens.

The plot is fairly similar to the ‘Sands of Time’ console/computer game (though I’ve never played it), with a mystical dagger that has the potential to change the fate of Persia forever. Gyllenhaal is pretty good as Dastan – he certainly looks the part and manages to disguise his American accent – and Arterton succeeds, for the most part, as Princess Tamina (though she’s never topped her performance in Quantum of Solace, the first film I saw her in). They’re surrounded by a bunch of white people with fake tans, who are all equally competent in roles that aren’t very demanding. The script is fairly lame, though you’d be surprised how often lines that must have seemed awful on the page come out as almost decent in the film. Unfortunately, Alfred Molina’s Sheik Amar is regularly embarrassing, as he gets lumped with the majority of the weak comic relief, whilst Ben Kingsley is on autopilot.

The good news is that the film doesn’t outstay its welcome, nor does it stray too far into fantasy territory. Aside from the magical dagger, the screenwriters managed to avoid pumping the film full of magical beings or monsters, which helps sell the sense of danger in several of the film’s best action scenes.

Don’t let me fool you, this is by no means a great film – the characters should have been more memorable, á la Stephen Sommer’s Mummy films – but it is an admirable use of two hours and, as I said, it looks really pretty.

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It seems that Sin City formed the visual template for this film, though the comparison isn’t fair to Robert Rodriguez’s 2005 flick. Whilst Max Payne takes the idea of noir and runs with it, bleaching all colours from the image, it also turns the contrast up to extreme levels. There are only two types of lighting – pitch black and stark white. It’s annoying, not classy, and constantly puts important parts of the action in shadow. It may have been a nice idea, but the execution is awful – and I can imagine anyone watching it on DVD would have massive trouble with ghosting of the image.

The story is nothing special. The introductory voiceover suggests the kind of blokey gumshoe delivery you might expect from Frank Miller, but the characters are drab and uninteresting. Max spends his days doing admin in the Cold Case unit, because – you guessed it – his wife and child were murdered years ago and the killer was never caught. Mark Wahlberg has always been talented – even in the worst of films – and in The Departed he showed just how brilliant he could be. The only direction he had here was apparently to ‘be taciturn’, which doesn’t really make for an interesting lead character. He plods from scene to scene, letting his facial muscles atrophy as supporting characters either flash him their private parts or try to knock him off (depending on their gender).

The special effects work well, though are conveniently hidden in all the black. Those expecting some cool winged angel animations á la Constantine will be disappointed. The film has fun in the final act, but it’s not really worth the effort of getting there. They put the camera on the gun at one stage, linking it to its video game roots, but – like Doom – it’s not enough.

A good opening weekend is all the studios were (are) ever after with this one, and I’m sure they got it. It was surprising to see Chris O’Donnell on the big screen again after what seems like such a long absence, but this action film doesn’t even boast much in the way of exciting action. Poor.

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Timothy Olyphant is Agent 47, revealed in an opening montage to have been raised specifically for his task. He is calm, calculating and skilled, and the audience rapidly discovers exactly how. When a hit on moderate Russian President Mikhail Belicoff somehow goes wrong, he is targeted by operatives of his own mysterious ‘Agency’ and forced to cooperate with a young prostitute (Olga Kurylenko as Nika Boronina) who will lead him to question the life he has decided upon.

Hitman features several excellent fight sequences, and if you’re a fan of espionage action/thrillers it could be great fun indeed. Booby traps, thrilling escapes and silent but bloody deaths account for much of the early action, and lay a great foundation. Slowing down a little to allow exposition may lose some viewers – particularly those used to skipping cut scenes in video games – and here Hitman begins to lose its way. Eventually seeming like a contortionist act as it tries to out-trick even the smartest of the audience, it falls into the trap of so many other action films of recent years. Audiences have become more savvy over time, but the constant imperative to make the ending a surprise is becoming tired.

Hitman’s script is generally average, but with some horrific moments that have to be heard to be believed. Handheld camera is used without feeling excessive (for once), and sound design is effective. Olyphant certainly looks the part, but Kurylenko seems to have been dressed by the same costume designer who clothes Russian prostitutes in all action films set in Eastern Europe.

Hitman frequently loses its way, but the enigmatic Olyphant is easy to watch as the title character, and several set pieces are designed to thrill. It is hard to think, however, that it will do anything but add to the consensus opinion about video game adaptations for the screen.

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Milla Jovovich looks as cool as ever in (literally) her own snazzy threads as she kicks, shoots and machetes her way through countless undead. Ali Larter joins the cast along with returning actors like Oded Fehr, Iain Glen and Mike Epps, and is in charge of the group of survivors whose number swells and shrinks in a seemingly random manner.

Australia’s Russell Mulcahy is at the helm this time, and although he’s never really matched his first Hollywood feature, Highlander, he does bring an edgy visual style to the film. The action is good, though there’s nothing particularly memorable. Whilst there are way too many money shots of zombies’ brains splattering, it at least provides the action that Rogue Assassin (War) failed to deliver. Writer Paul W.S. Anderson doesn’t really go anywhere new, and it’s astounding to believe that after hundreds of zombie/werewolf/vampire flicks, a character would still try to keep the fact that they’d been bitten a secret from everyone else.

Like many third films, this one goes out of its way to tie back into the first one, and it does so without ruining the original (as if that were possible…). Presumably the Resident Evil movies have a die-hard fan base, otherwise this wouldn’t keep happening. It must be said that it (hopefully) concludes the series on a (relatively) high note.

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DOA doesn’t even try to be too much of a movie. It’s not so much that the film resembles a computer game cutscene, rather that the film goes out of its way to resemble the game itself, even with the ‘Kasumi Vs. Bayman’ type graphics and the fight voiceovers. I can’t even remember if those two combatants actually threw down the gauntlet in the film, cos none of the fights are particularly memorable, excepting maybe the ‘Matrix bra’ scene that’s been in all the trailers. However they all produced a chuckle from me for their wire-inspired stupidity.

Veteran director Corey Yuen (The Transporter) has crafted a mildly entertaining piece of computer game fluff that manages to find excuses for gratuitous bum and cleavage shots every three minutes or so. Holly Vallance could have perhaps chosen a more significant film for her feature debut, and she performs about as well as expected considering the subject matter. It will be interesting to see if she ever manages to break into some hardcore dramatic films, especially considering her next appearance is alongside Paris Hilton in a National Lampoon comedy. Jaime Pressly’s Tina Armstrong is a pretty unlikeable character, and Devon Aoki manages to give the most extraordinarily wooden performance I think I’ve ever seen as Kasumi. Eric Roberts appears as the smarmy rich guy we’ve seen many times before, and Sarah Carter is the only actor that manages to bring some vibrancy onto the screen as Helena.

It’s crap but at least it doesn’t think too highly of itself. And for some reason it seems to feature the pirates from the ‘Asterix’ comics…

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The first half of this videogame adaptation plays out like an extended Tool video clip. The surreal visuals are stunning, and whilst never believable, the macabre beauty of the deadly horrors is enough to keep one entertained. Unfortunately all the exposition comes in the last twenty minutes or so, and not only does this feel awkward, but the backstory’s a little hokey.

Poor Radha Mitchell (Melinda and Melinda) seems to keep missing the train to superstardom, and it’s not for lack of talent. She’s great as the driven mother of the missing Sandra, even if a lot of the film simply has Rose running around yelling her daughter’s name a lot. The casting overall is a little patchy. Alice Krige is brilliant as the cult leader, Sean Bean (Flightplan) does okay as Rose’s husband, and a rather boring Laurie Holden and Kim Coates don’t really bring much to the screen as a couple of cops. This is the type of film where the actors are really only present to take us from one special effects moment to another, and the CGI work in Silent Hill is pretty good without being jaw-dropping. The types of creatures appear one after the other, gradually getting more and more fearsome, rather like the progression one makes in a computer game. The crowning achievement of the film would have to be the mighty Pyramid Head, however – one of the best-loved bad-guys from the Silent Hill series. Though he has very little to do with the plot itself, his scenes are fantastic, and he’s easily the best bad guy I’ve seen on screen this year.

Silent Hill is overlong and relies far too much on special effects to tell the story, but the wonderfully nightmare-like tone makes for an entertaining if lowbrow horror. Whilst the film is never truly frightening, it’s nice to see that it doesn’t simply try to out-gross the rather sadistic horror movie trend of late, and saves the really vulgar stuff for the climax.

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Buried under the Martian surface, but aligned with the mysterious portal ‘The Ark’ that allows Mars-Earth travel instantaneously but was built by creatures of unknown origins, lies the research station that is about to unleash a cavalcade of monsters on an unwitting human public. The only thing that can stop them is a band of marines lead by Sarge (The Rock) and Reaper (Urban), who travel to Mars to contain the mutants and stop anything returning to Earth.

Complicating matters is the presence on Mars of Reaper’s twin sister, who as an employee of the Union Aerospace Corporation has questionable motivations, and the tension between siblings enhances this further. Almost immediately they arrive, however, the marines start getting picked off, and we meet all manner of creatures, hungry for flesh.

That this set-up is absurd is not the point. Nor is the fact that the tension between Reaper and his sister, or Reaper and Sarge, is trite and shallow. The point is the shooting of many, many rounds of bullets, and Sarge’s use of the BFG. (‘Bio Force Gun’ in the film – although Sarge helpfully renames it ‘Big Fucking Gun’ in case we were uncertain of its heritage as a beloved weapon from the game.) This is a very silly film, full of pop-science about genomes and chromosomes, and seems to have been made predominantly to show off some great creature effects.

For anyone with even a passing acquaintance with the game, many similarities exist, and many things will be known in advance. Certain characters’ future roles will be obvious, for example. For anyone who has ever seen an action film before, the likely order of death of team members and eventual survivors will also seem clear from the outset.

The action sequences are reasonably handled, although they’re often hard to follow, being shot in the darkened passages of the station and then edited in the ‘rapid cut & handheld’ style I find abhorrent. That said, there are several great moments of shock, and one fight scene between human and monster that Stuart will love for its reality-based approach.

The dynamic between Urban and The Rock? Well, let’s just say that The Rock has his pants pulled down by Urban, who seems only half switched on himself. Their relationship is surprising, although the eventual outcome between them is not. The remainder of the cast, played by nobodies, are all lumped with uni-dimensional caricatures, and appear onscreen accordingly.

The most game-like aspect of this film occurs with the five minute extended sequence of first person shooter style action. This is so much fun, and for anyone who has ever enjoyed a FPS game it will be immensely enjoyable. The dipping, reloading, and firing of the weapon – and the use of a chainsaw, yeah! – reminded me so much of the original game, and I simply adored this section.

While Doom is hardly worthy of the title ‘film’, it remains fun to those of us who have ever shot at mutant zombies or aliens in anger. Whether it will appeal to those not weaned on such fare remains to be seen, but if you grew up fighting your way through Martian research stations like I did, this may be for you.

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You’d think they’d hire someone to read over their script and find any holes in plot or logic, wouldn’t you? It’s not so hard. So why, if the the virus just escaped and started mutating the citizens of Raccoon City, are there undead bodies buried in a cemetery, just waiting for our stars to arrive? What, they were buried in the last 8 hours?

Aside from the multiple failings in plot, the above example only one of them, this film is fun and exciting. Maybe it’s what I needed that day, but for whatever reason, I actually quite enjoyed this. Sure it’s overblown, illogical, clichéd… but what Hollywood science fiction surprises these days?

Guillory is great as Jill Valentine, Jovovich passable as Alice, and Fehr does a reasonable job as Olivera. The other cast are pretty much irrelevant in the onslaught of monsters, zombies and gun-toting army guys. The shots and editing are great, only rarely slipping into jump-cut and whip-pan errors. The CGI isn’t awful.

I guess it may help to have grown up playing games like this, as you’d be more willing to accept the obvious – Gee, I wonder when we’ll see Matt again? As it was, I enjoyed this for all its flaws. Go in with a light-hearted attitude and have fun.

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