Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010) : A Review

Based on the popular video game, Prince of Persia hit theatres this weekend worldwide. The pre-release buzz was very poor and so we managed to get the tickets easily on the opening week. The trailers for the movie were not too exciting and that set the expectations to an extreme low.

The story goes like this. The King of Persia gets impressed by the fearlessness of a slum orphan Dastaan(Jake Gyllenhal) and adopts him as a son. Tus, the eldest son of the King, on the advice of his Uncle Nizam (Ben Kingsley) raids the holy city of Alamut. With the help of Dastaan, they succeed in seizing the city. Meanwhile somebody conspires against Dastaan and he becomes the victim of a conspiracy that charges him with the assassination of the King. He flees the kingdom along with the Alamut princess Tamina and tries to bring forth the real culprits behind the conspiracy, while also trying to save the world from destruction.

I have played the old DOS version of the game a couple of times and found it pretty engaging for that time. I was never into the 3D graphics games, so I didn't get a chance to play the latest version of this game. May be that's one reason why I was not able to relate a single event in the movie to the game except for some stunts on the poles and walls of Persian markets.

I did not have much hope on the movie but because it was directed by Mike Newell, the man behind Donnie Brasco, I was not expecting the movie to be a disaster. The movie though not completely bad, was disappointing in many ways. It was an opportunity lost to make an exciting swashbuckler on the lines of Pirates of Carribean. One expects such movies to have exciting action sequences, thrilling soundtrack and plenty of humour. But this movie was lacking all that and was an absolute low on fun.

Jake Gyllenhal, though he played his part with honesty, was let down by poor charaterization. Ben Kindsley was a total disappointment. He seemed totally uninterested in the movie and was sleeping walking though the role. Alfred Molina was the only actor who seemed to have had some conviction about his part. And God knows why the makers chose Gemma Arterton. Barring a few scenes, she neither looked beautiful nor sensuous, which was what was expected from her in the movie.

And the most irritating aspect of the movie was the orange filter applied throughout, which probably screwed up quite a few scenic shots of deserts.

In a nutshell, Prince of Persia is an average movie and can be watched if there is no other alternative this week.

IMDB
Official Site
Trailer

Rated