Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
Video game movies usually don’t work. Video game plots are designed for that thrill and speed.
So when a movie is made on it. you dont’ really set your expectations high. But Prince of Persia proves you wrong.well not totally:-)
The plot is quite direct. A rustic’prince’ on the run(with a cute princess), wrongly accused of a crime he had not committed. That s it. Well almost. The story has its very own share of twists and turn. one too many I’d say. The necessary introduction of new characters keeps up its pace and the movie never really runs out of steam and moves on a like a falling rollacoster without control. The screenplay is so arranged that if you blink a little longer you wouldn’t understand where you are. The enjoyable part is watching a single movie with and without magic. The contrast is really good enough for you to relate with its characters. The comedy scenes in the middle have been made with a lot of good taste. sadly they didn’t last longer than 5 minutes.
The best part of the movie is Jake Gyllenhal. who plays Dastan, the prince in question. His charisma and performance gives the movie a great advantage. All other characters seem a lot out of touch. Though they have eventually delivered the goods. Gemma Arterton disappoints as Princess Tamina, as she looks nowhere close to a princess of a holy Persian city. Ben Kingsley plays, sorry’cakewalks’ the role of one Mr.Nizam. Toby Karell has however been wasted as Prince Gasab. I couldn’t believe he was the guy I saw in RocknRolla. Like many other Disney movies, violence and adult scenes are nowhere to be found. Thankfully we do have the pace of the movie to hold out attention.;)
The art and cinematography are huge assets for this movie. The editing has been done to keep the running crisp and slick. The director could have re-worked the climax to set it more fitting to this movie. The special effects are good but not great as per hollywood standards.The most important aspect of the movie - the dagger that turns back time is used less than 6 times in the movie, which makes it a tad underwhelming. So except a few glitches and a lot of compromises by disney to keep this a’kids’ movie. Its a good work.
But disney fellas, We live in an era where even kids want more outta everything. There are few video games without violence. I suggest you look into your strategy for the coming decades.:D