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FILM REVIEW : Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Posted by: Tony – May 28, 2010
If you really want to strike fear into a filmgoer’s heart, tell them the movie they are about to watch is based on a video game. No matter the quality of the game that serves as source material, a movie based upon it seems doomed to fail. This likely stems from the fact that most video games are populated by uninteresting characters acting out uninspired stories. These aspects take a back seat in games. Game developers focus on making a game fun to play and making the graphics nice to look at. The story line comes after these objectives are fulfilled. In the case of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, the filmmakers had two options. They could either take the time to develop the characters and expand upon the plot found in the video game, or they could cash in for a special effects extravaganza. Quite expectedly, they chose the latter.
The story, such as it is, follows Prince Dastan, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, on a series of fights and chases from beginning to end. First, he and his two elder brothers, both of whom have royal blood, are convinced to invade a city on the outskirts of the empire by their uncle Nizam, played by Ben Kingsley. In the ensuing battle, Dastan finds a strange dagger on a foe he has vanquished. He thinks little of it, but it leads him to all sorts of trouble. He is soon framed for the murder of the king, and is forced to flee his home with the help of Tamina, the princess of the city the prince invaded. She is not so much interested in saving Dastan, she just wants to keep the dagger safe. She knows its secret. It is actually the Dagger of Time, a weapon with the ability to turn back the clock, allowing the person who wields it to change the past. It is up to Tamina and Dastan to elude the soldiers hunting them and keep the dagger from falling into the wrong hands.
Along the way, the two main characters fall comfortably into their roles as hero and damsel in distress. They start out loathing each other, which is appropriate since Dastan ransacked Tamina’s home, but this allows for the typical will-they-won’t-they love story to play out. Watch for them to almost kiss half a dozen times as they warm up to each other. Just once, I would like to see a will-they-won’t-they love story go the other way. This is not a movie for taking risks, though. Along with the hero and damsel, we are also given the standard comic relief in the form of shady business man played by Alfred Molina. He fixes ostrich races out in the desert, and he hates the government and taxes. He is the most interesting character and he has some funny lines, but he is far from a saving grace for the movie.
A lousy plot and stereotypical characters are hardly out of place in a big budget Summer blockbuster. We pay to see these films for action and excitement, so how does this movie fare in that regard? Not very well, unfortunately. The first twenty minutes of the film reveal the entire bag of tricks. Dastan leaps from ledge to ledge in slow motion, kicks or stabs his waiting enemy, who was kind enough not to shoot him with a bow and arrow while he was traveling so slowly through the air, and begin again. Most of the action sequences follow this formula, and even the few that break from it are resolved with the same effect. This is seen towards the end of the movie when some CGI wizardry places Dastan in a seemingly impossible situation as he is swept on a current of sand down a sinkhole. Fortunately for him, though, he spots a ledge. It is just a small slow motion jump to safety. To be totally fair, there was a pretty cool fight scene between two throwing knife specialists. It was fun to watch right up until its inevitable conclusion.
Because this movie has a subtitle, The Sands of Time, we can be pretty positive that a sequel will be on the way in a couple of years. In this case, it will give the filmmakers another opportunity to do this right. All the pieces are in place for an enjoyable swashbuckling adventure. They just need to move away from the video game roots. Give the characters something more interesting to do than hiding a dagger from the bad guys. Tone down the slow motion CGI effects. Better choreography and a wider variety of stunts will make for more exciting action sequences. Perhaps I am too optimistic, but I believe that the filmmakers can overcome the terrible first impression made by Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.
By Gareth Mussen
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