  Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arterton in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, opening Friday. |
Prince of Persia is a blockbuster action film from Disney that has all the adventure and mystery of an Arabian Nights fable. It’s based on a video game; feel free to scoff, but keep in mind what Disney did with Pirates of the Caribbean, a movie based on a theme park ride. Ka-ching!
The movies are similar in their appeal — both involve fantastic events, superb costumes, an unnecessarily impressive support cast, intrigue, betrayal, hints of the supernatural and plenty of scenery chewing. But where Pirates was carried by Johnny Depp’s louche swagger, Prince of Persia floats along on Jake Gyllenhaal’s newly super-buff physique. (Seeing an actor one admires suddenly blown up like Schwarzenegger is disconcerting, to say the least, but hey — whatever serves the story.)
Gyllenhaal stars in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time as an orphan boy raised by the king. In the ancient empire of Persia, King Sharaman sees a scrappy little boy in the marketplace defending another child against adult tyranny. Impressed, he brings the brave child home to raise with his own two sons. Fast-forward and the boy, Dastan, has grown into a brave warrior and a loyal prince. He and his brothers are set to attack a holy city; Dastan alone has misgivings about the battle, but his uncle (Ben Kingsley) claims the city has colluded with Persia’s enemies. So the adventure begins.
In the holy city, Dastan encounters Princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton), who has a important task in life. It’s her job to protect a special dagger and the sands of time; the dagger can turn back time, so protecting it protects the universe. Something like that, anyway.
Tamina and Dastan must join forces to save the world, and Dastan’s dad, the king, thinks they should marry and make it official. Instead, a terrible act of betrayal puts Tamina and Dastan on the run together.
And what a run. They encounter a gang of villains run by Sheik Amar (Alfred Molina, here cheerfully stealing every single scene he’s in), wild ostriches, terrifying killers called the Hassansin, vile magical serpents, sand devils, collapsing buildings and all manner of bizarre and thrilling adventures. These events are underlined by the jumping and fighting and bobbing and weaving that’s a given in this type of picture (and in video games). By the third act, so little makes any sense that poor Princess Tamina turns into Basil Exposition — every word out of her mouth is an explanation as to what the heck is going on. It still doesn’t add up, but never mind.
Prince of Persia is innocent and exhilarating, and seems aimed at an audience of kids and adolescents. And gamers too, of course.
The movie is all action, all the time, so anyone hoping for character development or some sort of emotional investment will be out of luck. The performances are serviceable. Alfred Molina is the only actor who seems to really get into the spirit of the thing, but it doesn’t matter. Prince of Persia is a summer popcorn movie destined to leave your thoughts as soon as you leave the theatre, and its best quality is that it doesn’t pretend to be anything else. And you can bring the kids.
Want butter with that?
(This film is rated PG)
liz.braun@sunmedia.ca
More Movie Reviews
