Now, let me be the first to tell you that I did not play the games, so I don't know how faithful it is to the games. But, that didn't stop me from going to the theaters and telling you how this movie is. So lets go back in time with Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.
Remember: There are spoilers here.
Movie Summary:
The film starts off with a narrator telling of how everyone's life is connected to one important thing: destiny. We then see the king travel into the market one day, where he sees a young child stand up to a vicious guard. This one action of courage causes the king to take the child into his kingdom. Years later, the child grows into Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal), the foster brother to the other two princes.
Dastan is shown to be more interested in staying where his roots are other than in the palace. Dastan's brother Tas (I think that's how you spell it, but I don't know) sends his troops to enter the religious town of Alamut. They think that some weapon of mass destruction is there. Once they attack, Dastan finds the dagger of time. The Persians take the princess, Tamina (Gemma Arterton) hostage in order to use her for peace between the lands.
Suddenly, the king is poisoned by a robe that was given to him by Dastan. Dastan is then seen as the killer and flees with Tamina. Tamina and Dastan get into a small fight, where Dastan uses the dagger of time. He then says that he must converse with his uncle Nizam (Ben Kingsley) about it. Dastan and Tamina then learn that Nizam was the one that poisoned the robe. Dastan escapes while Nizam hires the Hassassins to kill Dastan and return the dagger to him.
Dastan and Tamina learn that Nizam wants to destroy sands of time (or something like that) so he can go back in time and stop himself from saving his brother in a past event. What Nizam doesn't know is that destroying the sands of time will cause a large tornado that will destroy the world. After Nizam stabs the sands of time's barrier, many of the sands are released. We then go back in time to when Dastan first found the dagger. He then stops Nizam before they can go any further with the attack. Dastan then returns the dagger to Tamina and they are arranged to wed in order to keep the peace between the lands.
Review:
My thoughts? I thought that it was an enjoyable, fun, action movie. I'll admit that I had many doubts before going into this movie. I thought that it would end up as one of the many failed video game movies. But luckily, this movie is one of the better adaptations. It has impressive action and has surprising bits of good dialogue. The story is a little run of the mill, but it does think of certain, small ways to surprise us. Like there is this one scene with an ostrich race and Dastan is in the way. This makes you think that a wacky chase is about to occur, but it never happens. And you expect Alfred Molina to be a really annoying comic relief. But thankfully, he isn't the type that makes failed attempts to make you laugh every five seconds. Speaking of him, here is what I thought of each separate actor.
Jake Gyllenhaal (Dastan): He did a good job playing the likable, comedic prince. He is shown to be a fun loving kind of guy, but he knows when he has to fight. He isn't saying one liners in every fight, but he does say one liners occasionally.
Gemma Arterton (Tamina): She actually surprised me here. I thought that she would be just ok, but she actually did much better than I thought. She is spunky and feisty, but is serious and becomes more likable throughout the movie.
Ben Kingsley (Nizam): I thought that he played the role very suitably, but when it came closer to the end he turned into the cliched bad guy, which is very disappointing.
Alfred Molina (Sheik Amar): He stands as the comic relief for the movie, but isn't really annoying, like I said earlier. He does say "funny" things, but sometimes he is actually funny.
Toby Kebbell (Garsiv): He really isn't given much to do. He's basically the henchman for the king, even though he's Dastan's brother.
Mike Newell was the reason I had such high hopes for this movie. He was the director of Donnie Brasco and my favorite Harry Potter movie. For me, he didn't disappoint.
Well, I really enjoyed this movie. I knew that it would be a little stupid, but, hey, this wasn't supposed to be an Oscar caliber movie.
4 out of 5 stars
Tell me what you guys think in the comments below. ;)
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