Producer Jerry Bruckheimer was perhaps Disney’s safest choice to turn the videogame, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, into a movie. After all, he’s the guy who took a slim premise from a theme park ride and fashioned it into the witty and rousing Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.
Bruckheimer follows much the same formula for Prince of Persia as he did for Pirates and the result is the start of what is destined to become another tent-pole franchise for Disney. Though Prince of Persia isn’t as refreshing as Pirates was at its time, it’s an enjoyable enough way to spend a couple of hours during blockbuster season.
Many reviewers have described Prince of Persia as “innocuous” and “bloodless”, which are possibly among the kindest words that critics have ever used to describe a film based on a videogame. But I think it’s to its credit that the film doesn’t try to be gritty or dark or complex.
Beneath all that CGI, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time is a self-consciously old-fashioned tale of pantomime villainy and heroic derring-do. It’s a world of monochrome good and evil where people all speak in the impeccably theatrical British tones you’d expect to hear in an Errol Flynn swashbuckler from the 1930s.
You can almost hear the audience hiss when the wicked relative — eyes accentuated with black eyeliner — slithers onto the screen. About the most contemporary thing about the film is the muddled political subtext, which has become a standard feature of Hollywood blockbusters.
Prince of Persia isn’t a perfectly accurate translation of the videogame’s plot, though it is true to the classic game’s Arabian Nights atmosphere and matinee movie trappings.
At the outset of the film, three brothers, the princes of Persia, have besieged a city they believe to be supplying the empire’s enemies with weapons. But in reality, this city is home to free, innocent people and a benevolent princess who is the guardian of an ancient mystical artefact. (See, it’s just like Iraq or Afghanistan.)
A series of twists and turns leaves the king of Persia dead and his adopted son Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal) suspected of his murder.
Dastan goes on the run with Princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton of Clash of the Titans and Quantum of Solace). He begins to understand that the movie’s villain engineered the invasion to get at the artefact, a dagger that gives the bearer the ability to turn back time.
Prince of Persia movie interviews:
Some of the film’s appeal lies in its cast. Gyllenhaal, best known for his intense performances in dramas such as Jarhead and Brokeback Mountain, takes on the role of matinee idol with apparent ease. He shares chemistry with Arterton’s feisty, beautiful Tamina that occasionally brings to mind the prickly relationship that Harrison Ford had with Carrie Fisher in the Star Wars movies.
If the film has an answer to Pirates’ Jack Sparrow, it’s the always-reliable Alfred Molina (Spiderman 2, An Education) as the amoral scoundrel, Sheik Amar. With a gold-capped tooth and a winking eye, Molina channels Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack in a scene-stealing performance. Ben Kingsley is suitably oily as the king’s brother and counsel.
The film is directed by Mike Newell, a workman-like director responsible for films such as Four Weddings & a Funeral and Donnie Brasco. He handles the big special effects showpieces with the same confidence he displayed in Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire.
Fans of Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed and Prince of Persia games will probably be pleased with the way their aesthetic has been translated to the cinema screen. The daring, gravity-defying leaps from crumbling pillars to collapsing platforms, the frantic scrambles up walls and the dashes across rooftops have been lovingly recreated in many of the film’s action sequences. One can see the game’s creator, Jordan Mechner, had a hand in the film.
The biggest weakness of the film lies in its script. Though there are a few good one-liners, Prince of Persia isn’t as consistently funny as Pirates of the Caribbean. The dialogue is often stilted and some of the plot exposition is a little clumsy.
But its snappy pacing and handsome staging manage to disguise most of its shortcomings. At the risk of damning it with faint praise, it’s the best videogame to movie translation yet. — Lance Harris, TechCentral
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