Movie Review: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Films based from video games are rarely good. When news hit that Disney was making a movie version of Prince of Persia, I set my expectations very low. I didn’t think the finished product could mirror the fun I remembered having when I played the cult classic back in the 90’s. In addition, casting Jake Gyllenhaal as lead was a bit of a head scratcher. He’s not Persian. Shocking I know. However, the screenwriters wisely wrote their way around the prince’s true heritage. In the film Dastan is an orphan, leaving his ethnic background up to the viewer.

But I digress. As I was saying, most video game films, save for the first Tomb Raider, have sucked. Mario Bros. Sucked. Street Fighter. Suckage. Mortal Kombat. Ultimate suck. Resident Evil. The first one was good, the rest suckage to the umpteenth power. Did anyone watch the Chun-Li movie? That said, Prince of Persia didn’t have much of a high bar to surpass. But I felt it did. Surprisingly, this latest Bruckheimer/Disney collaboration was a ton o’ fun. Even though it was very formulaic, (in the beginning I thought I was watching a live action version of Aladdin) I enjoyed myself.

Ignoring the weak accent, Gyllenhaal was adequate. More of a dramatic actor, I was impressed with how well he embraced the action hero role. His love interest, Tamina, played by Gemma Arterton , whom I believe could be the next action heroine, was better in this sword wielding film than in Clash of the Titans. Rounding out the cast are a few talented thespians, one of which is an Oscar winner. Of course the latter of which I speak is the excellent Ben Kingsley, who proves yet again that with little effort, he can be convincing in any role. Alfred Molina adds a bit of comic relief and was very amusing as the scene stealing, tax evading, Sheik Amar. This brings me to the Sheik’s business partner, Seso, wonderfully played by Steve Toussaint, I’ve never seen him before. Like Molina, he has great screen presence and has an intense dagger throwing sequence toward the end of the movie.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is definitely worth a matinee ticket. Lacking in some areas, it excels in others and with Mike Newell’s direction, (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) the film looked and felt like the classic video game. My expectations met, I liked it and give the movie a B.