The Film Buzz Review Rating: (5.5/10)

Based on Ubisoft  Montreal’s popular video game with the same title, the movie adaptation produced by Pirates of the Caribbean’s Jerry Bruckheimer and distributed by Disney, blends in rooftop-jumping action with sarcastic humour, adds a few grains of romance and results in a light-hearted popcorn flick.

The Plot:

Young street urchin Dastan (William Foster) is adopted by King Sharaman (Ronald Pickup) after he impresses him with his courage within the Persian market place. Fifteen years later, Dastan, now known as Prince Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal), and his brothers Tus (Richard Coyle) and Garsiv (Toby Kebbell) are informed by a spy motivated by Nizam (Ben Kingsley), the King’s brother and advisor, that the people of the sacred city of Alamut have been providing weapons to the enemies of the Persians.

The Persians thus attack Alamut and upon succeeding, Princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton) is captured and arranged to marry Tus, hence making her city also part of the Persian Empire. Dastan had inadvertently gotten hold of a mystical dagger while fighting a guard, much to the Princess’ dismay. During the celebration the Persians’ defeat, Dastan is framed for murdering his father King Sharamat, after the gown he had seemingly given to him, unexpectedly burnt him to death.

Dastan discovers the astonishing time-travelling power of the dagger while harbouring as a fugitive with Princess Tamina, who attempts to persuade him to return the dagger to its rightful place before it falls in to the wrong hands. Along their journey back to Persia, the bickering pair encounter Sheikh Amar (Alfred Molina), a crude yet joyful entrepreneur who although initially endeavours to steal the dagger off Dastan, ultimately sides with him and Tamina in their race against time.

The Thoughts:

Although most game/ book-to-movie converts are disappointing, I anticipated the release of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time because of my appreciation of the game franchise. I had not played the early versions, yet the 2008 Prince of Persia games and the PSP version (Rival Swords) were enough to turn me in to a fan. I found myself addicted to all of the ones I had played; not solely because I particularly enjoy action/adventure games the most, but because the character of the Prince had come across as rather amusing.

After I had realised that the film was based on one of the earlier game titles, I researched it and found that the two plots differed almost as much as sand and water. I thought it misleading that the film was named after the game, because the fans of the game will find that the story in the film is only relevant in terms of the dagger itself; a feature which becomes the highlight of the film only after an excessive involvement of background information. While this had provided plenty of childish, shallow entertainment; I considered the plot itself as hardly related to the game.

Nevertheless, had I been utterly unaware of the games and their storylines, I would be able to summarise the film as a poor, almost spoof-like attempt at combining Indiana Jones and Aladdin. The Disney element was most definitely felt; and this I deemed as one of the film’s possible strengths. The humorous action scenes, the “witty” sarcasm of the Prince, the annoyingly dramatic Princess, and exaggerated scenery I thought reflected Disney’s signature movie characteristics. Even though I had initially frowned upon the film’s use of an inappropriately “Western” cast (despite the Prince from the game itself having similarly blue eyes and dark hair) whose appalling acting skills were taken even less seriously by their heavy false tan and dyed hair, a few of the main characters had admittedly grown on me during the course of the film – particularly Jake “Donnie Darko” Gyllenhaal himself.

Through the ridiculously over-built physique, fragile attempt at a British accent and cheesy one-liners, lay the potential for a very likeable main character. I had literally thrown my face into my hands from embarrassment during the first half of the film, though once I had accepted fate, I had started to enjoy it from a mindless, “popcorn film” perspective – not to be taken seriously at all, and had even managed a few chuckles.

I had found it a shame that Gemma Arterton’s one-dimensional depiction of the “majestic” Princess Tamina did not improve nonetheless; her absurdly over-dramatised behaviour, forced on-screen chemistry with Gyllenhall, and highly annoying voice continued to poke at me in the temples, as well as Alfred Molina’s ludicrous Cockney accent in a supposedly Middle Eastern environment.

The cast’s shallow performances (though I reluctantly understand that the specific actors were chosen for commercial purposes) had indeed made the film seem like a parody, as did most of the plastic-looking costume and equipment; the dagger itself had sometimes looked like it had been purchased from Toys R Us.  I had also miserably failed to conceive why it was not used for more impressive scenes in the film – the “Dagger of Time” had provided an enormous opportunity to create stunning and extraordinary visions during major fights, yet it was used for abysmal pettiness.

All in all – a predictably dire attempt at creating a movie from a game franchise, though admittedly not one of the worst.  It definitely deserves a point for some of Gyllenhaal’s stunts, another for his ‘charisma’, the visual effects gain another point, the music perhaps, and the sheer unintelligent, “family entertainment” factor gives it another .

Generosity gets the worst of me; hence it just about creeps over a “5” in my books.

The Film Buzz Review Rating: (5.5/10)