Prince of Persia “Sands of Time” – movie review

Jake Gyllenhaal made my heart leap with his latest movie “Prince of Persia”. Based on the game “Prince of Persia – Sands of Time” it is as action packed as the game. And to boot, the entire family can watch it. I mean it’s not too gruesome as most movies with swords are.

The plot starts with an orphan boy almost being decapitated by the sword of Persia’s guards because of a mischievous act of saving a friend (well saving a friend is not mischievous but it was how he did it). Then it so happened that King Sharaman, king of Persia was there at the marketplace (with guards and all) and he saw how fearless the boy was. So he saved the boy, took him to the palace and treated him as one of his own. That lucky bastard!

Anyway, that boy grew up to be Dastan (Jake’s character with abs of steel). As a man and a prince, he became fearless as ever. A front liner at war, face to face combat – the likes. Now the jumping, cart wheeling and hanging from place to place just like the one in the game are seen in most of the fight scene which is very impressive. I had played the actual game itself and I can see the character’s similarity. The only down part is that I didn’t know Persian’s has a British accent? (duh of course they don’t)

Moving to the other characters… Gemma Arterton who plays Princess Tamina tries to protect the dagger where the title “Sands of Time” came from. The dagger has a button which you can press and you can bring back a minute of time. The only one who will know about the “reversed time” is the one holding the dagger and pressed the button. The dagger has sand in it which diminishes when the button is pressed but there is a secret place where more of the sand can be retrieved. When the dagger falls into the wrong hands, the whole of earth may perish.

I have to say that most of the story plot can be predicted if you’re 15 and up. It is a very visually impressive movie but I believe the writers and director (Mike Newell) could have done a better job with the story line. Children and adults will love it but the adults (especially critics like me) will question the story and the uber use of slow mo effects.
Still I give it an eight out of ten. I was visually entertained especially with Jake Gylenhaal’s new bod . GP.

Jake Gyllenhaal
… Dastan

Gemma Arterton
… Tamina

Ben Kingsley
… Nizam

Alfred Molina
… Sheik Amar

Steve Toussaint
… Seso
Toby Kebbell
… Garsiv
Richard Coyle
… Tus
Ronald Pickup
… King Sharaman

Reece Ritchie
… Bis
Gísli Örn Garðarsson
… Hassansin Leader

~ by TM on June 4, 2010.