Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Yesterday, I went with some friends to see the new movie Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. This movie was based on the video game but this review is from the point of view of someone who has never played the game firsthand. I thought that there elements of the movie that were great but other elements fell short of the target. I loved the scenery shots of Alamut and of the Persian kingdom, but at certain points when CGI was involved (more in action shots), it looked really computerized. I really enjoyed the many action sequences and I thought that Jake Gyllenhaal played the part well. He really bulked up to play Dastan and his fight scenes for the most part were believable. What bothered me was the accent. Most of the other characters had a decent if not stellar accent, but Jake struggled a bit with making it more realistic. It was more American trying to sound British, but in the end, I did like him as Prince Dastan. My friend thought that he could have been replaced by some unknown accented actor, but Gyllenhaal has the star power to boost the box office sales.

I liked the banter between Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arterton who played Princess Tamina, and I thought they had good chemistry. My favorite part involving the CGI was of course Prince Dastan's journey back into time, turning his body into sand and the ability to manipulate events to change the future. I thought that was very well done. The movie for the most part had exciting battle scences, especially the Hassasin fight scenes. The only problem that I noticed with the plot was how Dastan, after releasing the sand through the dagger, got transported back to just after he captured Alamut. He simply accuses his uncle right in the open and basically for his brothers to believe him was a huge leap of faith in reality. We knew the truth, but I thought that it was tied together in a sloppy way. They could of added a little more time to the movie to make a better way for Dastan to show the treachery of his uncle Nizam. Also, I liked that Dastan and Tamina got a second chance to be together which ended the movie on a good note for me.

Overall, I'll give this movie 6.5/10 Sand Daggers (trying a new ranking system, but it will change for each movie)