Prince of Persia was first introduced to the world in 1989 by Jordan Mechner. The game featured a protagonist clad in white. It was a side-scroller in which you had to climb your way to the palace and rescue the princess. The thing was, you had to do it in 60 minutes or less or the princess was dead. Good times. A sequel, The Shadow and the Flame followed in 1993. Then, a 3D game was released in 1999, which was absolutely terrible. Prince of Persia would not be seen again until it was rebooted in 2003 with The Sands of Time. The Sands of Time showed the prince in a different way, with him running along walls and jumping from ledges and columns as well as manipulating time itself. It was unlike anything that was done before. A sequel to The Sands of Time, Warrior Within followed in 2004, and was bloodier, with a heavy metal soundtrack. Still it was a lot of fun and introduced new fighting mechanics to the standard platforming elements. The Two Thrones would eventually cap off the Sands of Time Trilogy. A reboot, simply called Prince of Persia was released to the XBOX 360 and PlayStation 3 in 2008, but was fundamentally different than the games that preceded it. I enjoyed it personally, but a lot of people didn't. In 2010, the movie version of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was released to theaters, by Walt Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer productions.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time takes place in ancient Persia(duh!) when the Persians are attacking a sacred city. Adopted Prince Dastan(Jake Gyllenhall) leads an attack that breaches the walls of the city. This allows his brothers and Nizam(Sir Ben Kingsley) to enter the city and take control. The city is ruled by a religious princess named Tamina(Gemma Arterton). Dastan eventually comes into possession of a mystical dagger which gives its user the ability to turn back time. Dastan's father is murdered and the young prince himself is set up to take the blame. Dastan and Tamina flee the city to discover the truth about the Dagger and how to keep it from people who would use it for evil. Okay, so the story is something that we've all seen and heard before, but it does work in this film.
There are certainly a number of colorful characters that show up during the course of the film and one of them is Sheik Amar played wonderfully by Alfred Molina. Alfred Molina is one of the funnest actors to watch because he puts every ounce of effort into the character he plays, regardless of how ridiculous the character, and he gives it his own unique little spin on the character. Jake Gyllanhall surprised me a great deal as Prince Dastan. I honestly would never have pictured Gyllanhall as the prince, because he didn't look like he had the body for it. Well, he definitely bulked up for the role and it shows as he does many of his own stunts, with the exception of the flips and high-risk maneuvers associated with parkour. But still, he handles himself very well in the fights and the rest of the film when he ISN'T fighting. The prince in the games was always a bit of a smart-ass and I'm glad they managed to keep that intact for this film. Sir Ben Kingsley is a legendary actor. Unfortunately, the last movie that was based on a game that he starred in, Bloodrayne, was an absolute stinker of a film. Gemma Arterton(Quantum of Solace, Clash of the Titans remake) is stunning as the princess, Tamina and plays off Gyllanhall very well.
The other thing that they managed to include from the game is the parkour elements, where the prince swings on bars, jumps of buildings and running on walls. Not as much as I would've liked, but there's enough there to keep the adrenaline pumping and waiting to see what the prince will do next. The parkour elements were supervised by none other than David Belle, the French founder of parkour, so the free-running scenes were, for the most part done by Gyllanhall and without wires. Obviously there were a few scenes that needed the wires, but still, it's fun to watch. The visual effects were simply astounding particularly when the prince is outrunning a tidal wave of sand towards the end of the film. It's spectacular.
The film moves at a brisk pace despite the fact that it's two hours long. There's rarely a dull moment, whether there is a sword fight or the prince is escaping on the rooftops or just when he and the princess are almost literally at each other's throats. It was well directed by Mike Newell. I honestly, haven't seen a movie that was based on a video game that has come together this well. You've actually got good acting, with fantastic fight scenes and special effects with a rather decent story. That is exceptionally rare in a video game movie. But they managed to do it right, this time. It's a lot of fun, and I really recommend it. I give it a 9/10.
