REVIEW: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

STARRING: Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton View Trailer DATE SCREENED: 05/03/09 RELEASE DATE: 05/28/09 The Verdict OK - Wait for the DVD

Hollywood is really desperate for story ideas these days. The recent deluge of bad remakes and sequels has really been disheartening. The best movies of 2010 have been based on comic books (Kick Ass & Iron Man). Original ideas are so hard to come by that Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is based on a video game. A video game? Hasn’t that already been proven to be a recipe for disaster (Tomb Raider, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Super Mario Bros)? A video game based movie with Jake Gyllenhaal starring as the action hero? WTF? Needless to say, I was not excited as I walked into the theater to see Prince of Persia.

Set in medieval Persia, Jake stars as Dasdan, a feisty orphan boy who is taken in by the King of Persia and made a Prince. Dasdan and his two brothers lead a successful raid on the holy city of Alamut. Almut has been accused of secretly making weapons (of mass destruction I presume). When the King arrives to inspect the victory, he is murdered. Dasdan has been implicated in the crime, so he flees with Princess Tamina from Almut. His two brothers are in hot pursuit. The twist is that while Dasdan is on the run he discovers a secret that is known to the Princess. A dagger he has stolen from Almut contains some type of magic sand that allows the user to turn back time for a few seconds. Dasdan must elude his brothers, protect this dagger, find more of the magic sand and seduce the Princess, while also finding a way to prove his innocence. Sounds like a busy week…

I do give Prince of Persia credit for containing elements of everything that has proven to be successful in a summer blockbuster. There is lots of action & adventure, good special effects, a budding romance between a Prince & a Princess, comic relief in the form of Alfred Molina as a sheik they cross paths with, and a crowd pleasing ending that wraps up the entire story in a nice little bow. The audience at the screening ate it all up and cheered at the end. I’m not so easy to please. First of all, Jake Gyllenhaal is not the kind of manly charismatic lead I like to see in my action films. Either of the actors who played his brothers would have made a better lead. Jake is the kind of action star that will appeal more to women than the target male audience. The fight scenes are horribly filmed with lots of quick cutting, probably to cover the fact that Jake can’t believably fight on camera. The romance is not at all romantic. First they hate each other and bicker, but in the end they love each other. Wow, never saw that one coming. And the ending is so predictable that you see it coming a mile away. Think about it. If you were falsely accused of a murder and discovered a way to control time, how would you use it in the end? At least the movie keeps up a fast pace through it’s almost 2 hr running time. But Resident Evil will keep its crown as the best of the mediocre to bad crop of movies based on a video game. Wait for the DVD.