Prince Of Persia: Sands Of Time, conceived of by a strictly PG pairing of Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney, is a new exotic action-adventure film that’s loud, fast and has almost all the ingredients of a good summer popcorn film. The question is does the film – based off the multiplatform video game – work?

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton and Ben Kingsley
Directed by Mike Newell

P.O.P.’s plot is easy enough to follow:  Dastan, a young orphan kid from the streets, catches the attention of King Sharaman by stopping a soldier from committing a ruthless attack on another down-on-his-luck street kid.  The King realises there is something special about Dastan and after learning the he’s an orphan, decides to love him as his own and makes the boy an addition to his family. Years later, the older Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal) grows into a young carefree warrior for his father’s kingdom.  Although problematic, he’s great in battle, showing his wits by helping his brothers capture the holy city of Alamut which is believed to be creating weapons for an attack on Persia. Little do they know that what they are looking for is not a necessarily a weapon, but a dagger with the power to turn back time.

The film’s premise doesn’t offer much in terms of a plot and the trailers have already established that Nizam, Dastan’s uncle, is the bad guy. Dastan and Tamina (Gemma Arterton) are a tolerable on-screen couple, playing the same formulaic couple that we’ve seen a thousand times over; him being the stereotypical muscle head with a heart and her the fierce, attitude-filled, butt swinging Princess.

Disney have tried to recapture the magic they created with Pirates Of The Caribbean with this year’s summer effort.  Unfortunately, Gyllenhaal and Arterton just didn’t fit their roles, and hearing British accents from most of the cast was somewhat distracting.  This film just flat out falls victim to too many quick edit fight scenes, bad pacing and miscast roles.  P.O.P. had potential and you catch glimpses of it towards the last half of the film as it really picks up and takes you for a ride, but it’s just too little, too late.

2/5.

-Henry Mullins

Tags: Prince of Persia - Sands of Time
Posted in Reviews