Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time is Hollywood's latest take on video games, directed by Mike Newell and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, the man behind the Pirates Of The Caribbean and CSI franchises.
The plot of The Sands Of Time closely follows the plot of the game of the same name: the Prince (who was known only by his title in the games but has now acquired the name Dastan) accidentally gets caught up in a battle to control the powerful Dagger of Time, an artifact capable of controlling the flow of time, and allowing one to do all sorts of dastardly things. He is helped by the princess of the city that his father's army invaded. He manages to save the world, but saving the world comes with something of a nasty catch.
Now, video game adaptations in general, like comic book adaptations in general, have usually been regarded as complete failures by fans - with examples of this being Super Mario Brothers (starring Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo), Hitman (starring Timothy Olyphant), Doom (starring Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson and Karl Urban), Resident Evil (starring Milla Jovovich), Silent Hill (starring Radha Mitchell) and Max Payne (starring Mark Wahlberg). The question is: does Prince Of Persia fall as flat as its predecessors?
Yes and no. While it keeps the plot that fans of the game know and love, it's been stripped of many of the other things that we love. The Prince's acrobatics take a back seat in the movie, except for a truly well-done sequence in the movie's opening where he climbs the walls of the holy city of Alamut and opens the gates for his brother's army virtually by himself. Feisty princess Farah has been replaced by the equally feisty princess Tamina, which isn't in itself a bad thing, as her character seems to incorporate elements of characters Elika and Kaileena from later games. And instead of being chased by creepy sand thralls, the Prince and company are now being pursued by creepy assassins, sent by Nizam - who used to be known only by his title, the Vizier, and is now the Prince's uncle …
Despite these little things, Prince Of Persia still manages to be a fun romp through the desert, with some really good performances from Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton and Ben Kingsley, as well as a fun turn from the always-excellent Alfred Molina as a rogue ostrich-racing promoter (of all things) who seems a little too fond of his ostriches.
I'd give it about a seven out of ten.
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