Lyzsi SinclairCinema release review - "Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time"...
Next I’m reviewing a film that is one I was interested in, but not necessarily desperate to see during its cinematic release. “Prince of Persia: The Sands Of Time” is a live-action adaptation of the popular 2003 Ubisoft videogame. Directed by Mike Newell, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer (“Coyote Ugly”, “Pirates Of The Caribbean”) and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures; this adaptation stars Jake Gyllenhaal (“Donnie Darko”), Gemma Arterton (“St. Trinian’s”), Ben Kingsley (“Gandhi”) and Richard Coyle (“Coupling”).
Jake Gyllenhaal plays Dastan – a man who, as a boy, was adopted by King Sharaman of Persia (Ronald Pickup). Accepted into the royal family as one of their own and forming a strong bond with his royal brothers Garsiv (Toby Kebbell – “Dead Man’s Shoes”) and Tus (Richard Coyle), the King has drilled a strong sense of family loyalty into them with the help of his own brother Nizam (Ben Kingsley). When news breaks that nearby city – and home of the beautiful Princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton) – Alamut has been providing weapons to Persia’s enemies, the brothers take their army over, and Tus choses to stage an attack on the Holy City. Celebrating their victory afterwards, King Sharaman is murdered by a poisoned robe, and Prince Dastan finds himself accused. His escape takes him on a mission to clear his name, but with Princess Tamina along for the ride, and a mystical dagger that contains The Sands Of Time in his possession; it’s not long before things get even more dangerous. Can Dastan clear his name, discover the truth about his suspicious uncle Nizam, find out who murdered his father AND stop the dagger falling into the wrong hands? Only ‘time’ will tell…
I must start off by saying that I’ve never played the games myself, I’ve only watched other people playing small portions of them. In fact when it comes to videogame films, the only ones I’ve ever played are "Street Fighter" and small (very small) chunks of the original "Resident Evil" game. However, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that videogame adaptations are notoriously awful – I mean not just in the way the game has transferred to the screen unsuccessfully, but also as a stand-alone film for those who have never played. I can safely say that “Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time” is probably one of the better ones I’ve seen – but don’t be fooled into thinking that’s a fantastic compliment…
It’s everything you expect from a Bruckheimer film I guess. Exotic locations, and lots of action and chase sequences are something that echo from the “Pirates Of The Caribbean” franchise – but there just seems to be something missing. What was happening in the film failed to keep my eyes riveted to the screen, leaving me a few times drifting into my own world. Gyllenhaal played the hero well and seemed to breeze through the action sequences (I believe he did a fair portion of his own stunts) with ease. Kingsley was great as the villain of the piece; I had even found myself questioning whether he really was bad for half of the film, even though I already knew he’d be the bad guy. It kept me guessing at least...
Gemma Arterton looked stunning as Princess Tamina, but came across as very self-entitled and whiny. I’m not sure what she’s like in the games completely, and I guess those character traits worked at the start – but she just got too annoying. I found myself wishing her on-screen death so that I didn’t have to hear her moan or see her throw a strop anymore. one thing I always like about Bruckheimer movies is the fact he does get some fantastic British talent in – and Arterton is definitely talented – but other performances from people like Richard Coyle were great also. He really played Tus well, strong-willed, resilient and loyal to his family, which made me like his character - even when he helped in accusing his brother Dastan of their father’s murder. Another performance that stood out was Alfred Molina as Sheik Amar, a thief in charge of a notorious gang – that turned out to be gentler than his appearance. Nearly every line he said made me laugh, but some were lost in overzealous sound effects and distractions.
Fight scenes were well choreographed, exciting and well paced, which is something that makes this stand-out amongst other videogame films. Normally their recreation of in-game fight and chase scenes fail to hit the spot, but in this film it seemed to be done with a little more success. However, there were an horrendous amount of continuity issues with this film. From props mysteriously moving in milliseconds, to Gemma Arterton’s make-up and costumes changing without reason, it was just appalling. One scene in which Dastan and Princess Tamina jump from a balcony into a water fountain underneath was the worst – with her make-up staying perfect (despite this film being set way before waterproof make-up), and then in the following scene supposedly a few minutes from this, her eye make-up and clothes changing completely. I mean, they were meant to be escaping – when did she have time to change?!
I also have a little trouble with the way the story ended. Any pace that was picked up earlier on was immediately thrown away by red-herrings and misjudged action shots. At the end you are told that if the dagger plunged into the big hourglass containing The Sands Of Time that the whole world would be destroyed and nothing could stop it. Princess Tamina then falls to her unfortunate death, and Nazim and Dastan end up fighting it out before the dagger gets plunged into the hourglass by Nazim. I’m not actually sure what happened then – a mixture of overblown CGI effects, whizzing camera actions and ghostly mass flashback scenes meant that I missed what exactly stopped the world from ending. Maybe Dastan was just having a good day..? The subsequent scene that followed was a bit of a hash-job after that, in an attempt to tie up loose ends and try and resolve the story as quickly as possible. It just didn’t work for me.
As I said before, this is probably one of the best videogame adaptations – but it’s the best of a bad bunch. This is proved by the fact out of all the live-action videogame adaptations, Rotten Tomatoes gave “Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time” the highest score with 39% (second only to the first “Mortal Kombat” film with 35%). This is still a VERY low score, and one I completely agree with. “Prince of Persia” is an average film. There is nothing new or special about it, and certainly nothing that makes me desperate to watch it again. It works better in that unlike most other videogame films, it doesn’t follow the main actor religiously – or try to put in any uber first person camera sequences (“Doom”, I’m looking at you here). As a stand alone film it falls though, and the announcement of a sequel to it just seems like a waste of money to me. Instead of making an average film, the cast and crew should have worked hard on giving it the charm, charisma and excitement that the videogames heralded. However, you just feel let down – and all the beautiful locations and actors in the world just can’t make up for that.
Overall a fairly watchable film, but one you main find yourself drifting in and out of. An average film, “Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time” gets a 6/10 from me. Flix Out.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays Dastan – a man who, as a boy, was adopted by King Sharaman of Persia (Ronald Pickup). Accepted into the royal family as one of their own and forming a strong bond with his royal brothers Garsiv (Toby Kebbell – “Dead Man’s Shoes”) and Tus (Richard Coyle), the King has drilled a strong sense of family loyalty into them with the help of his own brother Nizam (Ben Kingsley). When news breaks that nearby city – and home of the beautiful Princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton) – Alamut has been providing weapons to Persia’s enemies, the brothers take their army over, and Tus choses to stage an attack on the Holy City. Celebrating their victory afterwards, King Sharaman is murdered by a poisoned robe, and Prince Dastan finds himself accused. His escape takes him on a mission to clear his name, but with Princess Tamina along for the ride, and a mystical dagger that contains The Sands Of Time in his possession; it’s not long before things get even more dangerous. Can Dastan clear his name, discover the truth about his suspicious uncle Nizam, find out who murdered his father AND stop the dagger falling into the wrong hands? Only ‘time’ will tell…
Can Dastan clear his name, and find out what Tamina is protecting...?
I must start off by saying that I’ve never played the games myself, I’ve only watched other people playing small portions of them. In fact when it comes to videogame films, the only ones I’ve ever played are "Street Fighter" and small (very small) chunks of the original "Resident Evil" game. However, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that videogame adaptations are notoriously awful – I mean not just in the way the game has transferred to the screen unsuccessfully, but also as a stand-alone film for those who have never played. I can safely say that “Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time” is probably one of the better ones I’ve seen – but don’t be fooled into thinking that’s a fantastic compliment…
It’s everything you expect from a Bruckheimer film I guess. Exotic locations, and lots of action and chase sequences are something that echo from the “Pirates Of The Caribbean” franchise – but there just seems to be something missing. What was happening in the film failed to keep my eyes riveted to the screen, leaving me a few times drifting into my own world. Gyllenhaal played the hero well and seemed to breeze through the action sequences (I believe he did a fair portion of his own stunts) with ease. Kingsley was great as the villain of the piece; I had even found myself questioning whether he really was bad for half of the film, even though I already knew he’d be the bad guy. It kept me guessing at least...
Gyllenhaal played the action-man well...
Gemma Arterton looked stunning as Princess Tamina, but came across as very self-entitled and whiny. I’m not sure what she’s like in the games completely, and I guess those character traits worked at the start – but she just got too annoying. I found myself wishing her on-screen death so that I didn’t have to hear her moan or see her throw a strop anymore. one thing I always like about Bruckheimer movies is the fact he does get some fantastic British talent in – and Arterton is definitely talented – but other performances from people like Richard Coyle were great also. He really played Tus well, strong-willed, resilient and loyal to his family, which made me like his character - even when he helped in accusing his brother Dastan of their father’s murder. Another performance that stood out was Alfred Molina as Sheik Amar, a thief in charge of a notorious gang – that turned out to be gentler than his appearance. Nearly every line he said made me laugh, but some were lost in overzealous sound effects and distractions.
Fight scenes were well choreographed, exciting and well paced, which is something that makes this stand-out amongst other videogame films. Normally their recreation of in-game fight and chase scenes fail to hit the spot, but in this film it seemed to be done with a little more success. However, there were an horrendous amount of continuity issues with this film. From props mysteriously moving in milliseconds, to Gemma Arterton’s make-up and costumes changing without reason, it was just appalling. One scene in which Dastan and Princess Tamina jump from a balcony into a water fountain underneath was the worst – with her make-up staying perfect (despite this film being set way before waterproof make-up), and then in the following scene supposedly a few minutes from this, her eye make-up and clothes changing completely. I mean, they were meant to be escaping – when did she have time to change?!
Time to escape, but not before a quick change...
I also have a little trouble with the way the story ended. Any pace that was picked up earlier on was immediately thrown away by red-herrings and misjudged action shots. At the end you are told that if the dagger plunged into the big hourglass containing The Sands Of Time that the whole world would be destroyed and nothing could stop it. Princess Tamina then falls to her unfortunate death, and Nazim and Dastan end up fighting it out before the dagger gets plunged into the hourglass by Nazim. I’m not actually sure what happened then – a mixture of overblown CGI effects, whizzing camera actions and ghostly mass flashback scenes meant that I missed what exactly stopped the world from ending. Maybe Dastan was just having a good day..? The subsequent scene that followed was a bit of a hash-job after that, in an attempt to tie up loose ends and try and resolve the story as quickly as possible. It just didn’t work for me.
As I said before, this is probably one of the best videogame adaptations – but it’s the best of a bad bunch. This is proved by the fact out of all the live-action videogame adaptations, Rotten Tomatoes gave “Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time” the highest score with 39% (second only to the first “Mortal Kombat” film with 35%). This is still a VERY low score, and one I completely agree with. “Prince of Persia” is an average film. There is nothing new or special about it, and certainly nothing that makes me desperate to watch it again. It works better in that unlike most other videogame films, it doesn’t follow the main actor religiously – or try to put in any uber first person camera sequences (“Doom”, I’m looking at you here). As a stand alone film it falls though, and the announcement of a sequel to it just seems like a waste of money to me. Instead of making an average film, the cast and crew should have worked hard on giving it the charm, charisma and excitement that the videogames heralded. However, you just feel let down – and all the beautiful locations and actors in the world just can’t make up for that.
Believe me when I say Gemma Arterton was beautiful in this film, it still can't save it though...
Overall a fairly watchable film, but one you main find yourself drifting in and out of. An average film, “Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time” gets a 6/10 from me. Flix Out.
