Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time

Movies adapted from video games don't have a great pedigree. Resident Evil, Hitman, Street Fighter, Mario Bros... the list goes on, and only rarely does anything watchable emerge. We've yet to see a game adaptation Oscar contender.

Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time isn't about to change that  trend, although it does at least provide a vaguely entertaining  diversion - more than can be claimed by some of it predecessors. There's  plenty of sound and fury in its fast-paced swords-and-sorcery tale of  high adventure, but unfortunately all that bluster fails to disguise the  lack of substance.

I guess no one's going to be surprised that Prince Of Persia fails to examine the subtleties of the human condition. Still, it might have been nice to feed our brains as well as our eyes.

Jake Gyllenhaal is well cast as Prince Dastan, the hero of the original games, even if  he plays the part as a troubled, overly-sensitive teen rather than a  truly heroic pillar of his community. Those ripped abs don't quite hide  the pubescent whining.

Dastan is adopted by King Sharaman of Persia (Ronald Pickup) when he's  still a child, after the King sees him leading his guards on a merry  chase around the market. He admires the young Dastan's plucky attitude,  and takes him under his wing. (This was clearly a very different era -  old men spotted picking up young Arab boys at the market would get a  very different reception nowadays).

Sharaman already has two sons, Tus and Garsiv, but Dastan is quickly  accepted into the family group. Tus is the eldest, so when he makes an  executive decision to attack the city of Alamut based on the dubious  advice of their evil-looking uncle Nizam (Ben Kingsley),  his orders are followed. It's Dastan who seizes the city, however, and  wins the spoils - a curious dagger that seems to have magical  properties, and the hand of the captured Princess Tamina (Clash Of The Titans' Gemma Arterton) in marriage.

Of course, nothing is quite so simple. During the victory celebrations  King Sharaman is killed with a weird poisoned cloak, and as Dastan was  the one who presented it to him he's hunted down for the crime. Dastan  goes on the run with the Princess to prove his innocence, and along the  way he learns some uncomfortable truths about his dysfunctional adoptive  family.

All this skulduggery makes for an overly complex and convoluted plot,  and you'll find yourself caring less about Sharaman's killer than you do  about Gyllenhaal's floppy hair. The story itself is so tangled that it  borders on incoherence at times, but Jake's hair always pulls through.

What saves Prince Of Persia is the quality of the performances.  Kingsley is always reliable (even if he's so obviously villainous that  they might as well have locked him up when he was born), but it's Alfred Molina who truly steals the show. Playing a local bandit-slash-entrepreneur  who loves nothing more than racing ostriches, he adds some much-needed  pantomime to Gyllenhaal's serious, but rather dull, protagonist.

Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time undoubtedly benefits from  everyone's low expectations surrounding game franchises, but there's  still the kernel of a fun, if rather dumb, fantasy action movie nestling  at its core. That it fails to rise above these roots isn't entirely  unexpected - but at least it makes a valiant effort with its Aladdin-meets-Lord Of The Rings ambitions. Among the best of a bad bunch.

2/5

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

"Prince of Persia" is my second favorite video-game serial, right after  "Metal Gear Solid". So naturally, I was eagerly expecting the big screen  adaptation, never completely forgetting the video-game-to-film curse  that seems to plague this world. It's a tricky field to play in. For  one, you have the hardcore fans who'll burst in anger at the slightest  alteration of the original; on the other hand, there's the general  audiences who'll find it weird if the film sticks too close to the  source material, which in the case of VGs often doesn't translate well  to the screen if you adapt it literally. So where does "The Prince of  Persia: The Sands of Time" (PoP) stand?

Somewhere in the middle. PoP takes elements from all three games. The  story is mostly from the first game "Sands of Time", albeit with a few  alterations. For starters, the Prince has been given a name - Dastan,  while in the games he had remained nameless throughout, simply referred  to as the Prince. That was part of his charm, but I understand why the  change. Also, whereas in the game the Prince was tricked into unleashing  the Sands of Time at the beginning by the scheming Vizier, and the game  followed him and princess Farah trying to undo what had been done; in  the film, he is framed for his father's murder and he flees with  princess Tamina and the Dagger of Time in order to prove his innocence.  And his British accent was taken from the first game, where the Prince  spoke in this manner. His appearance,  however, is from the later games - namely "Warrior Within".

One thing that gets my choler rising, is the constant bitching about  irrelevant stuff. Like Dastan being played by Jake Gyllenhaal, a white  man. What the fuck do you people want? Persians ARE white. So where's  the problem? If some Persian actor had gotten the role, nobody would've  gone to see the film because "why should I pay to see some unknown  Persian dude?" Gyllenhall was totally THE Prince, as far as looks are  concerned and anyone telling otherwise is a big fat liar.

Continuing on, the effect when the Sands are used show the wielder of  the Dagger becoming like Dark  Prince from "The Two Thrones". All of this does not play a major  part in the film, but I just wanted to show they took something from all  the games and incorporated it into the film...

... which, I admit, did disappoint me a little. That is mostly because  it doesn't take full advantage of what the games offered, which were all  about crazy ass acrobatics as the Prince was like a mad monkey, jumping  and swinging all over the place. In the film, the acrobatics weren't  present enough in the action scenes. They were generally nicely done,  but remembering the games I could not help but think of how they  could've been. Mostly, I resent not seeing one of the basic and most  awesome moves - the wall-run (see here, at the  beginning).

Also, the plot seemed sloppily executed in some places, having some  needless scenes and odd moments. But, the one and only segment where the  film fails miserably is the incredibly lame attempts at humor. They've  tried to copy the games, where the Prince and the princess Farah were  indeed always arguing with each other which almost always resulted in  genuinely funny situations. In the film, it's just annoying and  definitely too forced. The few good jokes are provided by Alfred  Molina's character Sheik Amar.

I have no complaints about the special effects. There weren't that many  of them, less than I had expected, to be honest. If only they had shown  some more wide shots of the cities. They also could've used a  breathtaking scene from the first game where the Prince had to scale the  outer wall of a huge tower. It would've served to showcase the beauty  of the exotic environment.

The acting? Oh, well... is it really important in a summer blockbuster  like PoP?

And finally, the music. Composer Harry Gregson-Williams really nailed  the sound, creating an authentic feel. I dare to say this is one of his  best scores as of late. And what's better, it makes a good listen even  stand-alone. Check for yourself.

The conclusion: PoP was a mild letdown, but still a good representative  of typical summer blockbusters. Shallow and fun. I just hope we'll see a  sequel featuring the Dahaka,  who's one of the best and most interesting bad guys in VG history.

P. S. Here's one of Magnum's theories: we were discussing why Tamina  (the Dagger's keeper) didn't bring the Dagger to the secure temple  before all of this shit started, instead of waiting all of these years  do to it. Is it a plot-hole, or not? Well, Magnum said it's not; she  couldn't secure the Dagger because she's incompetent and had to wait for  a man, the Prince, to come and do the job for her, as in  real life. Having been manducated by the infinite wisdom of Dick Masterson, I tend  to agree. Do you?

Rating: 7/10

- review by Ventilation shaft

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Recommendations:

Crossed swords & a spunky leading lady

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was an entertaining watch filled with acrobatic action performed by the rogue-ish Prince Dastan a.k.a. Jake Gyllenhaal plus a lot of romantic tension between him and the lovely & spunky Princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton). Most of my friends liked the movie and yep I’ll have to agree with them that it’s a good watch with a fairly good plot. The jokes are a little contrived but on the whole the movie moves at a good pace and ends pretty well too.

My only beef with the movie were the Hassansins which IMHO is a very silly name for a secret group of assassins. Ben Kingsley doesn’t make for a good villain cos’ he’s just too likeable in my opinion.

I give Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time 3 out of 5 stars.

For more reviews check out my blog here.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

You can always tell its summer when the big budget blockbusters start rolling out.Prince of Persia is Disney's latest attempt at trying to pull off another runaway pirates of the Caribbean hit. We reinvented the pirate genre so why don't we try the sword and sandals one?

For two very good reasons: one, you don't have Johnny Depp to brilliantly steal the first film or to be the shining star in the next two pieces of crap, and two, and this is very important, you based it off of a video game. Video game movies are historically bad, I cannot think of one game that has evolved into a great movie. There have been decent attempts but nothing great. Prince of Persia falls into this category.

Prince of Persia  is the story of Dastan, an orphan boy who was picked off the streets of the Persian capitol because the king liked how white he was compared to the rest of the people. Seriously, this movie is so whitewashed they should just call it Prince of Europe. Anyway Dastan grows up as a prince with his two legitimate brothers, who all have a slight British accent (further accentuating the whole whitewashed thing). After the Persian army takes the holy city of Alamud, Dastan finds a mysterious dagger. Soon after he is framed for the death of his father and barely escapes the city walls. Somehow, the princess of Alamud hops on for the ride. Dastan has to set out to clear his name and discover the mystery of the dagger.

The whole gimmick of the Prince of Persia video game is that Dastan has a dagger that can turn back time every time he presses its super secret button. Thus whenever he is about to die he can turn back time and do it all over again, only without dieing. Dastan discovers the power of the dagger by accident in the movie and of course there is going to be a big plot about time travel and what people will do for that power.

First off, what kind of a name is Dastan? The entire film I was convinced his name was Dustin (being white and all) and that everyone was pronouncing it wrong. Only recently did I discover that it really is Dastan, but everyone in the film pronounces it like they want to say Dustin, but instead just spew out some syllables that sound like neither name. Halfway through saying Dustin they change it making it Duh-Stan or Dah-Stun. It is more annoying than a South African vevuzela.

The bright spot for Prince of Persia is Sir Ben Kingsley. I last saw him in Shutter Island and it really always is a delight and he can play a pretty good bad guy. Jake Gyllenhall doesn't do to bad as the hero either. He is appropriately hunky and amusing, trying to counter his female colleague (Gemma Atherton) who is appropriately annoying. The heroine always spends 70% of the film hurting the main character and 30% helping.

Prince of Persia doesn't use the time travel gimmick nearly enough, but it does contain some sweet parkour moves, coupled with some interesting assassins makes it at least slightly watchable. It's everything I expected, nothing more and nothing less.

2 out of 4 stars

-Christopher O'Connell

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Last updated: 2010-07-04 20:51:44 by JoeandChrisO

Film Review: PRINCE OF PERSIA - THE SANDS OF TIME (2010)

RATING 7.5/10

BOTTOM LINE: Surprisingly entertaining popcorn flick with some fun action, humour and mystery, only let down by some lapses in to predictable cliché and an emphasis on noise over story.

THE GOOD: On paper, this film seemed like another disposable Jerry Bruckheimer adventure production but in the capable hands of Mike Newell, “Prince of Persia: The Sands Of Time” is surprisingly entertaining, making use of its history through the video games quite well (which is no doubt a result of game creator Jordan Mechner’s involvement in the writing duties). Jake Gyllenhaal plays Prince Dastan, a street boy adopted by the King of Persia as one of his own sons. When he perpetrates a successful raid on a holy city, not all is at it seems, and as he digs deeper, he suddenly becomes thrusts in to a plot which sees the King murdered, and himself a fugitive on the run. In essence, this story follows this basic plot structure of the various iterations of the video games, and as a result, we get to see a lot of action scenes of the Prince running, jumping and performing acrobatic stunts across roof tops and fighting bad guys. There is a decent enough story to follow as well with “The Sands Of Time” having the power to turn history backwards for whoever activates the dagger containing the sand, thus giving its bearer the ability to change history and the world. The cast performs very well, with Jake Gyllenhaal being the ultimate surprise as he manages to carry the titular role quite successfully. Gemma Arterton matches Gyllenhaal with her feisty yet feminine performance as Princess Tamina. Ben Kingsley seems destined to be the bad guy by default and does an amicable job, while Alfred Molina brings some good humour to the piece as a pirate. “Prince of Persia: The Sands Of Time” is a beautifully shot, and entertaining piece of popcorn which is worth parking your brain at the door for a few hours for.

THE BAD: The problem with films like this is that the inevitable clichés come out. Mike Newell manages to keep them at bay for the most part, but they are still present, largely because this is still at its core a mass-produced piece of entertainment. The romance angle for example is clumsily set up and just there for effect and the female audience; the characters are quite two dimensional as written, and it is only the cast that really makes them worth watching. Another problem is the way this film is edited; the emphasis is too much on moving on to the next action scene and creating as much noise as possible. If the filmmakers had taken the time to install a sense of rhythm, and even a few moments of quiet, this film would have been more dramatic and become a proper film rather than as the previously mentioned mass-produced piece of entertainment. The elements were there to make this film more than what it ultimately is, but perhaps Jerry Bruckheimer does not care as at the end of the day, this film has been designed, and will no likely doubt, appeal to the young male audience who will go and see it again and again.

Todd Murphy <br />
http://www.allaboutmovies.net

Prince of Persia: The Sans of Times -

I guess I made the decision after seeing the trailer. Prince of Persia : The Sands of Time was definitely on my 'must-see' list. But when the movie opened last Friday, I didn't rush out to the local cineplex. I waited five days and saw the film on Tuesday, the 1st of June.

The pedigree was right - Disney, Bruckheimer plus Mike Newell in the Director's Chair. Plenty of gee-whiz CGI effects. And after the somberness of Ridley Scott's Robin Hood, I was in the mood for a rollicking adventure across the Persian sands, or should I say the Moroccan deserts.

The film started off well enough with the familiar chase across the rooftops. We see this so often and yet it is always satisfying. But in all honesty, I thought that the rooftop chase in Tangiers, Morocco, in The Bourne Ultimatum, was far more thrilling, and the opening chase in the first Daniel Craig Bond film, Casino Royale - was done much better.



Once the chase concluded, we quickly advance to a time, a dozen years later when the boy who was Dastan in the opening chase has now grown into Jake Gyllenhaal's Prince Dastan. I'd seen Jake in Rendition and Jarhead, so I was familiar with him., and prepared to like him.

I think he has the looks for the role, but not necessarily the screen presence. I don't think he commands as much attention as you might like for the hero in an adventure/action film. Still he was effective.



Likewise for Gemma Arterton who was cast as Princess Tamina. She reminded me of Julia Ormand who played opposite Richard Gere in First Knight. But this  Tamina role was paper-thin as written, and so Gemma had little opportunity to act.

Which brings us to the script. Palace intrigue with political overtones is nothing new. As long as we have had politicians and or palaces, there's been both intrigue and overtones which are always and essentiallly just power struggles. But the film's concept originated in a video game, so I can't jump on the script as heavily as I'd like. It wasn't bad, but it was far from sparkling.



So to make up for the weak script, and to give us something to think about when we aren't watching the action, the rest of the ensemble cast was chosen carefully and precisely. You have to overlook the fact that everyone in the cast spoke with a British accent, including the American Gyllenhaal. But kudos must be given to Alfred Molina as Sheik Amar, an opportunist, a conman, and the sole anti-government spokesperson in the film. He was also the sole character who produced some moments of fun in the film. Especially when he railed against heavy taxes.



I also liked Richard Coyle as Tus, and Ronald Pickup as King Sharaman. They made me think of some of the characters from Lord of the Rings, but neither appeared in those films. Be that as it may, they certainly looked right.

The action sequences were kind of cheesy to me. The invasion and the battle for the Holy City Alamut was far too brief. I desperately wished to see an army of Orcs but there wasn't any. Dastan swung his sword, and swung from one rafter to another effectively, but the man-to-man combat scenes were edited in such away that it was difficult to follow. It was like they offered you a taste of combat, rather than the sensation that Dastan was fighting for his life.



The CGI mountainous cities that seemingly reached to the heavens were marvelous to look at, but these are only matte images so you get to appreciate them for only a few seconds.

The impending doom - the onrushing sands of time - that threatened to obliterate everything before it seemed like it might have been done better. Even when the sand floors gave away beneath Dastan's feet, I never really believed he was in peril.



And of course, the center piece of the entire film, the precious dagger that controlled the sands of time, seemed to be no more than a newer version of the Ark of the Covenant which was what Indiana Jones was after in Raiders of the Lost Ark which was made nearly 30 years ago. What goes around comes around.

But on a more basic level - the dagger was only a fancy and gimmicky object that armies fought over and evil men like the Nizam (Ben Kingsley in this film looks very much like Charles Middleton's Ming the Merciless from the Flash Gordon films from the 1930's) had to have. But what was it really? A gizmo that rolled back time? A machine that reversed events that you didn't like to a point where everything could be done over differently. When we were kids, all you had to do to correct a mistake was call for a "do-over". Your second-chance do over gave you a shot at your target once more.



Who would have thought that having a do-over machine, aka deux ex machina, would be the central idea in a historical epic adventure film in 2010 that cost millions and millions to make. We had our own versions of do-overs as kids, mere decades ago and they were 100% free.   

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Recommendations: Chak De! India

Last updated: 2010-06-03 16:07:03 by JustMeMike

Prince of Persia The Sands of Time Movie Review

Princess, we can sit here and chat or you can get on the horse!  The sands of time are running out and we'll miss the ostrich races, held every Tuesday and Thursday so move it, you camel-riding illiterate!       
One Word Movie Review: GOOD
Rated 4 Stars 
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is an entertaining romp back through time when movies were all about adventure and romance and swords and horses and grand vistas of far away exotic places.  Stars like Douglas Fairbanks and Errol Flynn used to swashbuckle their way through casbahs and palaces, with sparkling teeth bared and a damsel under each arm.
The stars of Prince of Persia are equal to the glory days of Hollywood with Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arterton looking absolutely stunning in every scene, whether they are tumbling through sand storms or being terrorized by snarling vipers or arguing over who is giving the orders.  The plot is really simple, a palace power play between fathers and sons (birth and adopted siblings), brother vs. brother and kingdom vs. kingdom.  The only complexity is this special dagger which controls time, and this is the McGuffin (Hitchcock's term for the plot device everyone is after) of interest as it can alter the past and change who should be king.
Of course, there is a large group of people who will hate this movie just because it is based on a video game, and not an especially good one at that, but the video game was based on these old movies so we've really come full circle.  I mean, who complained when Spielberg and Lucas created Raiders of the Lost Ark as a tribute to old adventure serials they enjoyed as boys growing up in middle America.  It was excellent homage to a genre long gone and this movie has the same lowly aspirations, but not the same artistry or storytelling, but then a movie like Raiders only comes along once in a generation (as evidence by the sad Raiders sequels we endured in hopes of repeating the wonders of experiencing Indy for the first time).
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a grand adventure full of treachery with some humor tossed in and lots of chasing around rooftops and silly wall climbing, running, jumping and somersaulting (to satisfy fans of the video game).  It is in the same class as Stephen Sommers' The Mummy starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz with at least the same amount of sand, snakes and supernatural mumbo-jumbo.
The use of sand as a metaphor is interesting, as it conceals, shifts and buries the past, the present and the possible futures playing out between the Prince, the Princess and the bad guy (who shall remain a mystery but you will probably guess who it is in the trailer or one of the many clips from the film available on the net).
So, if you like sand, attractive lead actors and lots of PG-rated action that entertains without sickening, then Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is your kind of movie.
The Story
The story takes place in ancient Persia, back when it was the superpower of the region.  Alexander the Great was probably still a baby when our hero, the orphan boy Dastan gets picked out of a crowd by King Sharaman to be his adopted son.  Thus, Dastan fulfills his dastany (that's a destiny unique to him).  Fast forward twelve years and we have Dastan and his two brothers contemplating the assault on the holy city of Alamut (and can you count on one finger how many movies you've seen where assaulting a holy city was a good idea?) 
Turns out this assault, while successful, lays down a world of troubles for Dastan and he is quickly on the lam with Princess Tamina (worst things could happen as she's one excellent travelling companion when she's not trying to kill you).  She's especially handy to sell into slavery when they run into bandits led by the funny and practical Sheik Amar (played with a deft comic touch by Alfred Molina who's making a name for himself in video game/comic book movies, having played a tour-de-force Doc Ock in Spidey 2).
Wouldn't you know it, the bandits and the Prince have common interests and so they band together to fight the bad guys, maybe grab some treasure and a throne seat.  The band of rascals make their way back to Alamut and the destiny that awaits the holder of the dagger, who can thrust it into the sands of time and either control time or destroy the world.  The actual fine line between these two outcomes is a bit hazy but suffice to say, the movie has a happy time-reversing ending that rights all the wrongs and unites all the beautiful people who should be together, despite their drastic personality differences.
Along the way we get ostrich races, sandstorms, collapsing temples, viper attacks, flaming oil, assassin hit squads and a lovely fountain at the very end right out of the Alhambra palace.  It makes a charming back-drop for Jake and Gemma.   
The Genre
The action video game adaptation genre is a recent phenomenon for Hollywood, although not surprising as most of the studios are affiliated with at least one of the game platforms and/or game developer studios.  Video games, by their very nature, lend themselves to films as they have an eager audience and a initial cast of characters and locations on which to attach a cohesive and compelling plot.  It is this last element that usually trips up this genre as video games are not about plot as much as immersive role playing, acting out the main character's challenges and missions. 
The Prince of Persia games were all about combat and acrobatics, running along walls, leaping and climbing and swinging swords.  Once you did that a few times, you got to another level and do it all again and then again.  This doesn't translate into movies very well.  The characters are also one-dimensional and laser-focused on mission completion.  This adaptation fleshes out Prince Dastan and his royal brothers, making them a bit like the three musketeers (all for one and one for the throne).  The Princess is the most interesting character, but we only find out her past when we need a secret passage revealed or a legend retold as fact to propel the story along.
These movies succeed when they deliver the look of the game and the pacing and complexity of character one expects out of feature films.  Does this movie capture the world of the Prince?  Yes, absolutely.  Does it deliver the action gamers expect.  Yes again.  Does it stand alone for those without any knowledge of the game?  Yes, but it helps to have seen a few of the old swashbuckler sagas of the glory days of Hollywood.  Then you'll "get it" and settle in for a good time.
The Overall Quality
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is well written, with bits of 21st century humor and attitudes laid over the ancient Persian setting.  This is a historical movie with a wink and a nod to the camera, so you can have a character complain about taxes and secret government killing squads because it is a fantasy world, not Lawrence of bloody Arabia. 
The acting is top-rate all around, with the leads, Molina and Ben Kingsley chewing the sand and spitting it out with great abandon.  Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arterton have a charming banter between them, a dynamic adversarial relationship that is expressed through looks and veiled admiration, building up to the final pay-off by the fountain that is honest and a bit touching for such a fluffy movie.    
The battle scenes and sweeping landscapes are detailed and realistic, with the desert scenes (filmed in Morocco) especially lyrical in texture and contour.  The opening and closing scenes of the tilted horizon and sunrise/sunset is a bit too obvious but between these bookends, the landscape of Persia looks terrific and epic at times.   
The scenes when the dagger controls time are the weakest of the film, rewinding people's movements looking like something out of an old home movie - look, there's uncle Dastan jumping out of the pool, then into the pool, then out of the pool!  Hey, the movie has its heart in the right place so you can forgive a few hokey effects.  It's a great time in a "Clash of the Titans" kind of escape flick for a few hours.  Just don't expect this Persian army to march into Greece and fight the Spartans any time soon, whether it be 300 or 3,000. 
Movie/Market Analysis
MarketBOB’s sentiment indicators, the GQS (Genre, Quality, Story) rate Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time an emotional BULL.  This is an escape for investors, a chance to put their troubles aside and think about a difference economy, one where if you don't like how it's going, you can just turn back the clock and re-play it again.  Maybe this time you'll sell that stock before it flash-crashes in a minute.  The motivation of one character to evade taxes is a source of investment humor, as we all base our buys and sells to minimize or avoid taxes whenever possible.  All in all, it is a good time movie and a delightful distraction from the real world.  However, the audience at my screening was full of adolescent boys so it's not going to be a big influence on the majority of investors out there.  Hey, it's good to finally get an optimistic adventure movie.  It is officially summer at last in Hollywood.      
Craig Forgrave (MarketBOB)
For the latest reviews and analysis of movies and their impact on market psychology, go to www.marketbob.com. 
My new Report on the Investing Decades of Depression: The Lost Decades of the 1930's, 1970's and the 2000's is available as an ebook.  Check out a preview.  It traces 30 years of stock market declines and the movies audiences flocked to during these depressing years. 

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time- Another Average Video Game Adaptation That Survives Mediocrity Based Solely on its Supporting Cast

Video game adaptations have never turned out well considering the many failures ranging from a horrid take on Super Mario Brothers to an equally embarrassing attempt based on the game Doom. They simply do not transcend well onto the big screen perhaps due to the detailed story lines that take hours upon hours to come to fruition with honorable mentions with the likes of Metal Gear Solid and the Legend of Zelda. Only one film hasn’t dropped the ball entirely and that was with the adaptation of Tomb Raider, which successfully combined decent action, a good enough storyline, and a worthy charismatic protagonist to follow through the fantastical scenarios. Mike Newell’s take on the latest video game big screen adventure, The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, has at least two out of three of the previously mentioned criteria for a durable summer blockbuster: a good enough story with some decent action. It certainly leaves behind charisma with its dull protagonist played by a befuddled Jake Gyllenhaal who is luckily aided with an efficient and recognizable supporting cast. Leave it to Jerry Bruckheimer to know how to produce a film that can be efficient and somewhat enjoyable though Prince of Persia never really breaks from the formula, borrowing from the best and staying the same. But that’s exactly what most audiences are looking for this summer and Prince of Persia stumbles but fortunately doesn’t trip and fall flat, which is the fate of many summer blockbusters in recent memory.
            Prince of Persia attempts to break the video game curse by introducing a tale that is familiar because of its Shakespearean undertones. Mixing the royalty elements of King Lear and Hamlet, The Prince of Persia has a King whose brother wishes to be in power but in front of him are two sons. Even a third son gets in his way once the King adopts a peasant boy in the streets in a gesture of kindness but is alluded to that destiny was in play. This peasant boy is Dastan, the ripped good looking but overall out of place Jake Gyllenhaal, who becomes a legendary warrior along side his two brothers, Seso and Tus. Eventually Dastan is framed for his father’s death and is forced to flee with the Princess Tamina, who possesses the secret to a dagger that can trigger going back in time for only a select few minutes. One could be quite picky with the details that the gods gave to a pure soul searching for peace a dagger, a weapon, in order to symbolize peace or the fact that the movie only allows going back in time rather than manipulating time but these are just details as to what could have made a decent movie better. Dastan must now unveil his Uncle’s conspiracy as well as his innocence with multiple obstacles along the way, which provides a template for decent action sequences including snakes popping out of the ground and columns being destroyed by rolling sand. Perhaps it was the low expectations of the film but considering just how formulaic the whole thing seems it is saved purely on the basis that its supporting cast was well chosen and that the action didn’t feel too copied.
            Without the supporting cast The Prince of Persia would have drastically failed seeing as how Gyllenhaal and the beautiful yet dramatically flat princess Gemma Arterton seem to be out of place in this fantasy world. The film really is saved by British actors, notably Ben Kingsley who plays the villainous Uncle rather well despite the limitations of the script. Kingsley is fascinating considering the range of characters he has played from Gandhi in Richard Attenborough’s bio-picture to the sociopathic Don Logan in Sexy Beast. We all know he can be a great villain and despite not having an epic villain role he uses the screen time well. Some more British actors, Toby Kebbell and Richard Coyle, play Gyllenhaal’s brothers effectively and considerably trump Gyllenhaal’s lack of fortitude and believability on the screen in every scene. But really the film is saved solely on the presence of Alfred Molina. The irony of Molina being in a film that basically borrows scenes and steals plot points from the Indiana Jones trilogy is beyond any of us, but his comedic delivery and uniqueness can be felt and missed with every passing scene. Molina certainly makes you appreciate and recognize the essential strength character actors bring to film and that star power isn’t everything, especially when the star is the one lacking charisma. Sure everyone can make remarks as to how non-Persian the entire cast might be, a fact that could be linked to some of its less than successful attributes, the film’s plot wouldn’t have been aided by this easy remedy. The supporting cast makes the experience enjoyable while the story attempts to make plausible realities from a complex video game structure. All in all the stories plot could have been better even with the structural and time limitations.
            The idea behind the reversal of time in Prince of Persia is one that isn’t uncommon to the video game or film world. Take for example the German film Run, Lola, Run which introduced the idea of video game lives into a seemingly normal existence, where the protagonist Lola can manipulate and change the course of her actions based on previous knowledge from the last time the level was played. In video games there are multiple chances at repeating the same actions learning more and more about levels each time you attempt them. In Mike Newell’s Prince of Persia, the protagonist possesses this power if he merely presses the button on the dagger, learning from the follies of his actions and the placements of his enemies. While this could be a stunning display of constant action it is unfortunately used not as often as audiences might be yearning for. This brings back the point that the manipulation of time, something that the video games possess, would have made for better action scenarios. But unfortunately films need to immensely shorten detailed video game scenarios into only two hours, leaving behind complexity and originality for the sake of efficiency. They never get into detail of the actual religion being played out here, which is heavily influenced by Zoroastrianism. There are definite sacrifices made here for the sake of turning a long and detailed video game into a silver screen blockbuster, the same unfortunate sacrifices that were made to the adaptation of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. But suffice it to say the Jerry Bruckheimer produced popcorn movie will please most audiences looking for a summer action escape if not the video game nerds expecting adaptation purity.
            For those who are expecting a summer blockbuster disaster than you might be pleasantly surprised with the results Prince of Persia has to offer. It’s not a completely original tale but the films pacing makes sure it flows well and engages the audience in displays of well thought out action and typical CGI. The real strength is the supporting cast, which keeps the two main screen characters from sinking the film into a flat and mediocre production. This is no piece of art and it isn’t the best of quality cinematic entertainment but Bruckheimer knows how to put the essential pieces of a decent production into place, and director Mike Newell transcends the dramatic comedies he is known for and delivers a solid action film that most people might enjoy.

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