Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
A rogue prince reluctantly joins forces with a mysterious princess and together, they race against dark forces to safeguard an ancient dagger capable of releasing the Sands of Time – gift from the gods that can reverse time and allow its possessor to rule the world.
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- Cast:
- Jake Gyllenhaal , Gemma Arterton , Ben Kingsley , Alfred Molina , Steve Toussaint , Toby Kebbell , Richard Coyle
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Reviews
Admirable film.
While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.
Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.
The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
I've never played the Prince of Persia games, but this movie wants me to try one of the games. The movie is very good and the visuals are stunning.
A Hollywood blockbuster in the best tradition - exotic kingdoms, a hero with the right heart, a beautiful princess who can stab back with tongue and sword and lots of adventures and evil beings with black magic.I admit, Prince of Persia is like Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton) a guilt pleasure for me: a mindless adventure and action story zillion times told before, but what we get on top are beautiful pictures, actors who have fun and a good shot or two of humor and slapstick spiced with battle scenes and duels and some unique ideas.Well, anyway, I watched this one like Hansel & Gretel more than just one or two times, and I don't know, both movies got Gemma, maybe that got some magical influence on me ;)
I had such high hopes for this film. The computer game it was made after is awesome, so I guess I was expecting something along those lines. But as always films after video games rarely live up to expectations (well, the expectations of gamers anyway). Maybe that is really the problem: you play a game that you really enjoy and you expect the film to be just like that. However, they won't just take story and characters and make them into a film one to one. They want to produce something new. That's how misfortune usually takes its course.I would even concede that for someone who doesn't know the game this may be a decent film. It has flawless visuals and a high calibre cast. I do strongly disagree with casting Gyllenhaal and Arterton as male and female leads. I know especially Gyllenhaal was a hot name at the time and I know this is common practice in Hollywood - but what would have been wrong with casting young actors from a Middle-Eastern background to be *Persians*?Casting choice aside there are several things that I miss in the film. These are things that I say in comparison to the game. I do, however, also believe that any viewer (familiar with the game or not) would have benefited from them. The plot is one. In the game the prince feels responsible for unleashing the power of the Sands of Time and he sets about fixing things. In the movie we also get a generic "usurper to the throne" plot line - or was that a hint at the plot of the original Prince of Persia? Next up are the stunts. Why did the sleek parcours style moves from the game not feature much more prominently in the film? The only hint at them is at the very beginning but they are not seen again. That would have made for some epic fights! What else? What about the eerie time monsters that made the game memorable? Were they considered too scary for the target audience? They were certainly not too scary for teenage gamers. Finally, what happened to the game's strong female lead? She could hold her own and even saved the prince more than once while at the same time becoming his love interest part of his motivation to succeed. The relationship felt equal with some funny banter between them. Pretty as Arterton is I don't remember that kind chemistry in the film.So, if seen as an independent film Prince of Persia is probably an only slightly generic and entertaining enough fantasy epic. But then why even name it after the game if the ties are loose at best? I know the answer, of course: hot, young actors + popular game franchise = $$$.
This Jerry Bruckheimer production truly "brings it." On the heels of Pirates of the Caribbean, this mega-producer was able to produce another highly entertaining Summer swashbuckler for Disney. It is partially based on the popular video game of the same name.Jake Gyllenhaal (Jake from here on out) plays Dastan, a street rat who becomes a prince. Sound familiar? No, actually other than that there are no parallels to Alladin. He obtains a dagger that is able to rewind time one minute in duration. Naturally everyone wants this dagger so he must keep it safe. Gemma Arterton is the beautiful princess who is charged with the task of getting it back from him. Dastan wrongly believes she wants HIM and not the dagger, as every prince probably would, but he is mistaken. Their romantic comedy banter back and forth is some of my favorite stuff from this film.There are a couple of actor heavyweights in the film as: Ben Kingsley and Alfred Molina. They bring a stoic feeling to the film. Both are very physical in the film, along with Jake. They appear to do many of their own stunts including Alfred Molina's harrowing scene when he kisses an ostrich. I understand these are mean animals and yet, they manage to be ridden in the film without the use of CGI. Quite amazing if you asked me.The film looks like a sword and sandal epic but feels just short of it at times. It isn't a bad movie but it's not as good as The Gods of Egypt or The 300. The story is a bit complex and I think could have been more engaging if it were whittled down and simplified a bit. Despite poor reviews and some stale audience periods, It did gross over 300 million dollars so something definitely is there that kept people swiping their cards and slapping down bills at the box office. I would recommend this film for fans of Jake or possibly the video game (I've never played it) but only after you've seen everything else he's done. I think you'll find it a lot of fun in a branched off performance for him.