Another day and another swashbuckling extravaganza from Hollywood. This time courtesy of über producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Pirates of the Caribbean and National Treasure franchise, to name a few), starring Jake Gyllenhaal as the warrior prince.

I heard about this video-game based flick quite a while ago, but have been blissfully ignoring it, opting instead to keep my radar focused on another one of similar genre, Clash of the Titans. But now that the trailer’s come out, I thought I’d give my two-cents that pretty much confirmed my initial feelings about this movie.

The thing is, I’ve never been a fan of Jake’s acting (though I’m a big fan of his sister Maggie). He comes across as rather bland in the movies I’ve seen him in (October Sky, The Day After Tomorrow, Rendition), nor do I find him particularly attractive. Perhaps my taste in men is slightly off-kilter as I can’t fathom what’s so great about Brad Pitt, either.

There have been numerous gripes over the fact that Jake doesn’t look ‘Persian’ enough. I personally think Oded Fehr (who was in The Mummy series) would’ve been a better choice. But not only is he too old to play a young prince (he’s 10 yrs older than Jake), he doesn’t exactly have the star power to carry a big-budget movie like this. Regardless, as absurd as the casting choice may be, I’m willing to suspend my disbelief and come to terms with it if the actor in question has charisma and believability beyond just the physical level. Alas, despite his shiny 12-pack abs rivaling that of King Leonidas, I just don’t buy Jake as a macho action hero. He’s neither bad-ass or witty enough to carry off such a role IMO. His British accent is all right, it’s not as horrifying as I some have said, but that’s the least of his problem. Bruckheimer is probably hoping Jake would pull off a  Johnny Depp, who’s able to elevate the campy Pirates series into a huge blockbuster. But Jake ain’t no Johnny, who doesn’t need abs of steel to have a magnetic screen presence.

The trailer itself looks a heck of a lot like The Mummy, and the action and special effects are what you’d expect from a Summer popcorn flick. The rest of the cast looks decent though, it’s got Sir Ben Kingsley and Alfred Molina, as well as Brit ‘it girl’ Gemma Arterton, who’ll also star in Clash of the Titans. All things considered, this flick will probably do well. I mean, if you’re in for an entertaining romp with all kinds of sand-related SFX you could possible want to see in a movie, then this movie will surely deliver.

Speaking of video-games, I recently saw a short movie made for Assassin’s Creed game set in the Italian Renaissance era. They’re mixing live-motion (with real actors) with CGI, but it looks fantastic visually. Check it out on YouTube, no doubt it will eventually be made into a movie.

So what do you think folks? Does the trailer pique your interest?