Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (www.the-usher.com)

"This is no ordinary dagger."

Once an orphan boy living on the streets, Dastan (Gyllenhaal) showed an extraordinary courage that caught the eye of the King of Persia. Taking him into him family, Dastan became a prince and led the great army of Persia with his two older brothers Tus (Coyle) and Garsiv (Kobbell) and their Uncle, Nizam (Kingsley). Receiving evidence that the once holy city of Almat was supplying weapons to Persia’s enemies, they have only one choice, invade. Taking the city, King Sharaman (Pickup) arrives and is given the gift of the city only to fall to a fatal poison or which Dastan is instantly blamed. Forced to flee and taking the imprisoned Princess Tamina (Arterton) with him, Dastan has to prove his innocence by using a magically dagger that has the power to turn back time.

Adapting video games onto the sliver screen has resulted in very few hits at the box office but can uber-producer Jerry Bruckheimer change all that?

When it was announced that Jerry Bruckheimer was going to make a movie based on an amusement park ride at Disney World, no one expected ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ to become one of the biggest grossing film trilogies of all time. Now he has turned his considerable skill of turning anything into a hit to the much lambasted videogame adaptation. With the genre filled with disasters like ‘Street Fighter’, ‘Wing Commander’, ‘Doom’, ‘Super Mario Brothers’ and that is not including the diabolical adaptations by the worst director working in cinema Uwe Boll like ‘House of the Dead’, ‘Alone in the Dark’, ‘BloodRayne’, ‘In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale’, ‘Postal’ and ‘Far Cry’. There have been some hits however, the ‘Tomb Raider’, ‘Mortal Kombat’, ‘Silent Hill’ and ‘Resident Evil’ performing well at the box office, none of them have ever received any critical acclaim. Can ‘Prince of Persia’ change that?

In 1989, Broderbund released the first ‘Prince of Persia’ game, a new style of fighting platform game and that started a whole franchise of versions of the game. It is Ubi-Soft’s versions of the game about an extremely athletic prince called Dastan who gained the power to be able to manipulate time to save his own life from mortal peril. Utilising the Sands of Time, this spawned a trilogy of games between 2003 and 2005 and it is the dagger from this series that provides the main plot device for the film adaptation. For the big screen version, the magical dagger is guarded by the Princess of the holy city of Alamut but the Persia army is about to mount an attack and she fears for its safety. In the confusion, the dagger ends up in the hands of Dastan, the adopted son of the King of Persia but when the Persian ruler is murdered, Dastan is blamed and is forced to flee with the Princess Tamina in tow. The story, of course, is just an excuse for free running, sword fighting action and a little bit of Middle Eastern mystical magic from the ancient world but for those expecting something on the lines of classic Sinbad tales, you could be a little disappointed.

The main problem with ‘Prince of Persia’ is that is introduces the magic of dagger that can turn back time but there is little other magic in the film. The whole mysticism of the Sands of Time is well explained by the beautiful Princess Tamina during historical flashbacks but the impressive time reversing effect is used sparingly during the film and not up to full potential. This means that the potentially classic adventure story is lacking in some much-needed magic. It does try and make up for this with some free running, stunt filled action and a chemistry between the two lead actors that really drives the movie.

For Jake Gyllenhaal, the role of Dastan is his chance to show that he can be an action hero. Better known for his more dramatic roles in films like ‘Donnie Darko’, ‘Jarhead’, ‘Zodiac’, ‘Brothers’ and ‘Brokeback Mountain’, this film gives him the chance to show that he can become a lead actor and one who can excellent in the action sequences. For Gemma Arterton, 2010 is going to be one of the biggest years of her career. As well as showing her genuine acting talents in the smaller, character driven pieces ‘The Disappearance of Alice Creed’ and ‘Tamara Drewe’, she has also starred in one of the biggest hits of the year ‘Clash of the Titans’. Successfully mixing big blockbusters with more challenging roles in smaller budget films is making Arterton is an actress to watch. The support is also good with director Mike Newell, assembling a British ensemble of Richard Coyle as Tus, Tobey Kobbell as Garsiv, Ronald Pickup as King Sharaman, Alfred Molina as Sheik Amar and Ben Kingsley as Nizam to bring the Persian tale to life.

‘Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time’ is a decent start to a possible franchise and the best video game adaptation of all time, which, to be fair, does not take much. With a little more imagination and the inclusion of more magic, this could have be great but instead with have an action adventure that is fun and one that you will enjoy. Don’t expect to want to rewind time to watch it again straight after though.

PICTURE & SOUND

The Blu-Ray disc presents the movie in High Definition wide screen 1:85 up to 1080p, with Dolby TrueHD 5.1 surround sound. The Blu-Ray package also includes the DVD and Digital Copies of the movie, making it a great value package.

BONUS FEATURES

CineExplore: The Sands of Time
CineExplore and take control of the dagger and use it to unlock secrets behind your favorite scenes! Turn back time and uncover over 40 spellbinding segments – including “Walking Up Walls”, “Filming in Morocco”, and “Ostrich Jockey Tryouts”

Deleted Scene
Watch the deleted Scene: The Banquet – Garsive Presents Heads

OVERALL

The Blu-Ray treatment of ‘Prince of Persia’ is one that fans should enjoy. The CineExplore featurettes are good but their could have been a few more deleted scenes to add more value.

BLU-RAY

CLASH OF THE TITANS (2010)

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2010