In the end, Prince of Persia becomes a film that feels awfully violent for its PG-13 rating (though none of the violence is particularly graphic) and too darn serious to attract much attention from action that will likely skew towards a pre-teen to teen male audience. It is only the presence of Alfred Molina, as an Ostrich Race organizer who spouts anti-government propaganda who salvages what little fun can be had in Prince of Persia, a film that can't seem to decide if it wants to be a comic action flick, a special effects-laden epic or a true family film. Alamut's princess, Princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton), is the guardian of the dagger and the remainder of Prince of Persia becomes a journey towards restoration of the dagger's final place, a journey made more complicated when Dastan is implicated in an unexpected tragedy. Inside the city, Dastan discovers a secret dagger, the "Dagger of Time," a dagger so powerful that it's possessor can alter all of history. To find these weapons (HINT: Weapons of Mass Destruction, ya' know), Nizam urges attack and the wheels are set in motion. One day, Uncle Nizam reports of learning that the kingdom of Alamut has betrayed Persia and is dealing weapons with Persia's enemies. Adopted by King Sharaman (Ronald Pickup) following a rather impressive display courage in defense of a battered youth, Dastan is welcomed as a brother alongside the King's own children, Tus (Richard Coyle) and Garsiv (Toby Kebbell), with whom he is raised with Uncle Nizam (Ben Kingsley) always nearby.Īs the young siblings grow into young men they, in turn, become young and brave warriors who are taught to balance their battles with a sense of compassion and a reverence for Alamut, a land deemed to be sacred. While Disney's latest, the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced and Mike Newell directed Prince of Persia: Sands of Time doesn't quite plummet to the depths of vapid mediocrity that Sex and the City 2 does, the film remains a hilariously awful over-produced and frivolously sculpted special effects spectacle with little purpose other than to freakishly bring to life the 2003 version of the Prince of Persia video game.īeing a rather disjointed blend of Bruckheimer and Newell, Prince of Persia somehow manages to squeeze in touches of world history, the obligatory classic British accents despite the film's being set in Persia (Iran), a buffed up and usually shirtless Jake Gyllenhaal and an abundance of occasionally awesome but more typically cheesy special effects that fall far short of indicating the film's $150 million production budget.ĭastan (Gyllenhaal), a name linked to the concept of destiny, is the films hero. How is it that two films both shot in the beautiful, majestic Morocco can both suck so incredibly badly? That title, incidentally, indicates there'll be more.How did we end up with two films made, at least partially, in Morocco in one week? It goes without saying, too, that any contemporary geo-political resonances are stuffed well out of sight: despite the odd mention of religion here and there, there's no concession to the fact that this is notionally set in the US's bete noire, Iran. (Kingsley's badness is supposed to be a surprise, but so satanic are his little goatee and kohl-caked eyes that it's telegraphed from the very first frame.) Director Mike Newell, having displayed his FX chops on Harry Potter, makes everything look very nice and feel fleetingly exciting, but even he can't do anything about the fundamental silliness of the plot, which is so convoluted that its protagonists have to regularly stop and shout out what "must" be done to ensure all the 10-year-olds in the audience don't get hopelessly confused. (Presumably, it's equally useful as a function on a gamer's control pad.) Gemma Arterton – glowing like a premier-league film star, but yapping like a Britcom third-rater – is the princess of the holy city where Dastan seizes it, while Ben Kingsley puts his supercilious sneer to good use as Dastan's treacherous uncle.
#JAKE GYLLENHAAL PRINCE OF PERSIA SERIES#
He plays a prince called Dastan in some nebulous region of medieval-era Middle East, who via a series of painfully complicated events, finds himself in possession of a mean-looking dagger that, via the sand grains in its hilt, can stop time and enable its operator to change things to his or her satisfaction.
E quipped with a chunked-up physique and a surprisingly accurate English accent, Jake Gyllenhaal makes a play for the family blockbuster market, as the lead actor in an expensive-looking film based, inevitably, on a video game.
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