Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action.

I’ll admit, when I saw the first pictures of Jake Gyllenhaal as the lead, I thought they had ruined the movie. Actually, I still think the poster of just him looks off; but in the movie he blends right in.

The plot wasn’t faithful to the video games. It took elements from a few (such as the dagger, of course, and the idea of destiny), but the overall plot is quite different. Dastan (Gyllenhaal) is one of three sons of the king, and is not a blood relative of the other two (this is the first ten minutes of the movie, so don’t stress). Adopted as a child, he becomes one of the Princes of Persia.

While the plot may not be true to the games, the action was. The Prince climbs up walls using arrows, and bounces from building to building with little effort. There were scenes that I thought “oh, yeah, I remember that part of the game”. The action was amazing, made even more impressive by the fact that the vast majority of the stunts were actually performed by either Jake Gyllenhaal or his stuntman, rather than being performed by a computer generated actor or in front of a green screen and enhanced to increase distance (there are exceptions–like when the set itself is entirely CG). There are plenty of fight scenes. My one complaint with the fights was how little fighting Princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton) does, compared to how much screaming and huffing she does.

It had its hokey moments, and the director was a little overzealous with the slow motion shots, but I enjoyed it. If you’re expecting a serious action movie, you’ll be disappointed. If you go in remembering that it’s from the same people who did Pirates of the Caribbean, you should be fine.

Rating: 6.5/10

Running time: 116 min

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