Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (Movie) Review

Let’s face it, when it comes movies that are based on videogames, the majority of them are pretty bad. The Resident Evil movies and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within are just a few of the atrocious videogame-to-movie adaptations made to date. The reason they are so bad and not appreciated by fans is because they try to change the storyline completely and make it their own version. Not to mention they often have a simplistic storyline and bad acting to go with it. With Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time now available in theaters, should fans expect the same level of mediocrity?

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a movie based on the videogame by Ubisoft of the same name. The movie casts Brokeback Mountain star, Jake Gyllenhaal as The Prince, with a supporting cast consisting of Gemma Arterton and Ben Kingsly. Let’s take a look on HOTs and the NOTs of the movie, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

HOT

Half Original-Half Game
The movie starts out in narrating the origin of the Prince named Dastan. Before Dastan became the Prince of Persia, he grew up in the slums and was adopted by the King of Persia to become his son. For fans who played the game, the Prince never had a name as he was only addressed as “Prince”. Fifteen years later, Prince Dastan and the rest of Persia have a plan to attack the city of Azad as they hold a powerful weapon that can be a threat to Persia. Azad is the place where Princess Tamina guards the dagger that transcends time using the power of the Sands. Without spoiling much of the story, this should be pretty familiar to any gamer who have played the game.

If I were to compare the similarity of the game to the movie, I can say that the movie is about fifty percent original while the other half is entirely based on the videogame. The main theme of the movie was made intact so that fans will be able to appreciate it as they watch it. As a gamer who has played the game, watching this movie did not confuse me as I had a lot to refer back to.

As for the differences between the movie and the game, the names are changed. The character names that fans met while playing the game is a lot different than the movie. Prince Dastan, Princess Tamina, Uncle Nizam, and Sheik Amar are the characters that can be found in the movie. In the game, none of these names exist but the characters they play are solely based on the game. The plot is somehow similar as the Prince in both the game and movie are planning to save the world with the help of the Princess and the Dagger of Time.

Special Effects
Whenever the Dagger of Time is used, you will get to witness some of the incredible special effects. One scene is particular sees the Prince turn into sand while the time rewinds. The movie may not be filmed in 3D ala Avatar but the effects are impressive enough for a movie of this scale. If you are somewhat of a visual effects enthusiast I suggest you catch this movie in IMAX.

Prince Dastan
We know that the Prince in the Prince of Persia games is good at his acrobatic skills. He can walk scale on walls, swing on poles, plus many more insane maneuvers. In the movie, Prince Dastan can do all of these things as well except for a few hard ones that are impossible to do in real life. There are times while you are watching the movie you cannot resist but to compare his moves to Ezio from Assassin’s Creed II.

Other
The other things that I love about the movie is the beautiful setting and the cast of characters. Jake’s acting is pretty decent, except he tries to put on a weird British accent. Comparing closely to the setting of the game and the movie, fans can say that it’s almost identical. The stunts and the ninjas that will be attacking Dastan and the Princess will be all familiar to fans. As always there is romance blooming between the Prince and the Princess…

NOT

Predictable Story
In almost every movie, there’s always a bad guy. There are times by just watching the beginning of the movie, you can already tell who’s going to be the antagonist. In Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, you can expect the same. As soon as the King of Persia was assassinated and the Prince was blamed for his death, everyone will know already who planned the assassination. Of course, I won’t be spoiling it because that will just ruin the fun.

VERDICT

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is the first decent movie based upon a videogame. If you were disappointed on how bad they adapted the Resident Evil movie from the videogame, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time will show you how a videogame movie should be made. As a fan of the game, I am satisfied as to how Disney and Ubisoft worked together to make this movie a success. If you enjoyed playing the Sands of Time, you might as well enjoy watching it in theaters.