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by Guest
Tue Mar 24, 2015 5:54 am
Forum: Full Reviews
Topic: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010)
Replies: 3
Views: 1337

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010)

One has to wonder if the original title for Disney's Prince of Persia (subtitled "The Sands of Time") was "Prince of Parkour." A significant portion of the film involves the main character, Dastan, leaping over roofs and doing incredible acrobatics. One early sequence involves Dastan climbing a large wall using arrows that his allies are dangerously shooting into the wall as he moves, which of course causes one to wonder why the arrows weren't simply shot into the wall before Dastan chose to ascend. And that, more than anything, sums up the movie. It rarely makes much sense (no matter what the scads of exposition try to convince you), instead focusing on its sheer "coolness factor," resulting in a fast-paced and action-packed adventure that's surprisingly unengaging.

After Dastan is accused of a treacherous murder he didn't commit, he is forced to run away from all that he knows to avoid being caught. To make matters more interesting, he has a mysterious dagger that has time-traveling abilities. But the dagger must be destroyed using a special ritual in order to eradicate a possible disaster.

Prince of Persia was created with the hopes of spawning a new Pirates of the Caribbean style franchise. Unfortunately, the film grossed only $90 million domestically on an estimated budget of $200 million. While overseas box office pushed the numbers into profit, there wasn't nearly enough to kick-start a possible franchise. And it's not hard to see why audiences took less kindly to Prince of Persia than its sea-faring brothers.

In spite of their problems, the Pirates films provided colorful characters, inventive action sequences, and top-notch special effects. Prince of Persia has none of these qualities. The characters are totally indistinctive. Dastan is the scrappy, adventurous lead, Tamina is the princess/love-interest that can fight for herself, and there's an obvious villain that's sort of a twist, though anyone that's seen the posters already knows who it is.

The action is structured like a video game. There's some parkour, some running away, some hand-to-hand or sword-fighting, and then a boss fight. The formula gets tedious quickly. And then there's the CGI which are among the worst I've ever seen in a big-budget film; which is unfortunate, because there are a lot of special effects. They're unconvincing and cheap-looking. The last act of the film features almost nothing but CGI, and it looks hopelessly cartoony.

Jake Gyllenhaal's flavorless performance is matched by Gemma Arterton's incredibly irritating one. Ben Kingsley spends his time chewing scenery, while Alfred Molina does what he can with a poor script.

Harry Gregson-Williams energizes the film more than anything on screen. It's fun, flavorful, and consistently interesting. While Gregson-Williams inevitably gives in to modern touches on multiple occasions (including electric guitar), the score remains mostly faithful to the pseudo-Persian sound.

While not as dreadfully dull as one might fear, Prince of Persia never comes close to being as fun or irreverent as those that clearly inspired the feature. It spins its wheels with repetitive action and annoying exposition for its two hour run-time, often lifting scenes directly from better action movies (such as Indiana Jones, and of course, Pirates of the Caribbean). Prince of Persia is a forgettable and flimsy foray into well-ridden territory that struggles to engage or entertain.

Score: 4/10