Review: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
May 28, 2010 by Maura Reilly
Filed under Reviews
Let the summer blockbuster race begin! One of the firsts out of the gate is Disney’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, starring an excellently buff Jake Gyllenhaal. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer is hoping to capture the same magic that surrounded another one of his big budget, costume adventure hits, The Pirates of the Caribbean. But Captain Jack’s boots are hard to fill. Will this popular video game cum action movie make the grade?
Prince Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal) is an orphan from the streets raised in the palace by the Persian king with his two sons the Princes Garsiv (Tony Kebbell – that drugged out rock star in RocknRolla) and Tus (Richard Coyle – “Jeff” on the original “Coupling”). The brothers and their uncle and trusted advisor to the royal family Nizam (Ben Kingsley) receive intelligence that the holy city of Alamut has been supplying swords and other weapons of mass destruction to Persia’s enemies. A successful sacking of the city reveals more than the Princes thought. Princess Tamina of Alamut (Gemma Arterton – “Io” in Clash of the Titans) is the ordained keeper of a sacred knife with great magical powers that fumbles into Dastan’s hands. A series of events forces Dastan to flee with Tamina into the desert to unravel the mystery of the knife and discover who has set him up as a murderer. Strange allies and deadly assassins cross their path which ultimately leads to a final struggle of epic proportions.
Sounds exciting, eh? It’s the kind of movie you’d expect to see Sabu starring in with Errol Flynn and a cast of thousands. That’s clearly what the filmmakers were going for here. It’s got big sets, lavish costumes, tons of stunts and action all set in an exotic locale. Ultimately though, Sands of Time failed to engage or interest me. As I was watching I was thinking how much it reminded me of the aforementioned Clash of the Titans remake (which isn’t necessarily a good thing) as well as Tasem’s The Fall. Very little in this film is original or new or even authentic (using a majority of European actors for the leads). It’s a challenge to find what did work.
Sand of Time looks beautiful: sumptuous scenery and luxurious clothing (Gemma exhibits a dizzying array in her frequent costume changes). Ultimately it’s all shiny surface with little heart. The first act drags but things pick up with the introduction of Sheik Amar played by Alfred Molina. Amar is a “questionable entrepreneur” trying to live a tax-free life out in the wilderness and is responsible for the majority of the film’s humor. Bruckheimer really likes Molina because he’s the heavy in the upcoming Magician’s Apprentice which Bruckheimer also produced.
If you’re a Jake Gyllenhaal fan, than this is your movie. He’s pretty much in every scene and his shirt is open in pretty much every scene. He is sporting an English accent along with his rippling muscles and distractingly bad wig (we’re talking “Jack” on “Lost” bad here). The accent is decent. Since he’s supposed to be from the streets the fact that it’s not polished works all right. There is a bewildering amount of stunt work in this film. In particular the use of parkour is prevalent and Jake jumps about and wields his saber convincingly. Besides the hair my other major issue with Jake was how out of place he seemed at time. He’d have an expression on his face or an inflection to his voice that was too modern and out of character with the story. But if Jake is your man, you’re not going to even notice that.
The elements were all there to have a decent hit but Prince of Persia: The Sand of Time simply doesn’t deliver. It is not a bad movie. It’s yet just another sad example of a film that, despite having every opportunity to do so, never reaches its true potential. I know there is talk of sequels already. If I cared at all about the characters I’d be happy to line up at the Cineplex to see it. I wonder if we can have the Sands of Time run back to when they first came up with this idea…
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