Prince of Persia: Sands of Time

My sister and I went to see this movie today, and there were a lot of emotions I got while watching the summer flick. My sister was clueless through the whole ordeal because she didn’t even know who Jake Gyllenhaal was, or the fact that this movie she's watching is based off of a video game, that I believed wasn’t depicted hardly enough.

Now, for the highs, this movie provided in-your-face action that people of all ages could love. It was a fun and enjoyable movie to watch. I’m not a huge fan of the video games that inspired this movie; the first Prince of Persia game came out when I was eight years old. I’ve have one before though with friends a long time ago. The acting was good, not fantastic, but decent enough to get the point across for people like my sister, who had no clue what was going on.

This movie was a high dose of fun – it gave me action, adventure, romance, magic and humor. Alfred Molina (the ostrich race owner) stole the show, in my opinion. Sands of Time even threw in a good message about love, loyalty, family and doing the right thing even when unfortunate things stood in the way.

The graphics were suburb beyond anything; the movie’s greatest asset no doubt. I felt as if I was actually there in ancient Persia, and with every swift move Price Dastan did, or the sound of iron clashing together, I could almost feel it in my seat. The lighting and the “out of time effects” were eye popping, and they will make you say “wow” pretty much the only thing that left an impact on me was this portion.

There were a lot of things that could have been better, absolutely. And even though this movie was supposed to bring all I’ve stated previously above to people, there were things some audiences couldn't stand to watch.

There are always three things I looked for in movies that tend to leave me flabbergasted. The first aspect would be the music score. A beautifully written score to back up what the actors on the big screen are feeling. Two, the acting, of course that would be defeating the purpose of going to the movies in the first place, and three, the story line or plot. All these factors I’ve mentioned, The Price of Persia failed to produce in some way for me. The entire time while watching this movie, The Mummy franchise kept popping up in my mind. This movie reminded me of that to no end. The music, setting and even the characters all seemed the same to me.

I thought the British accents were annoying, especially hearing Jake for the first fifteen minutes. It was a little distracting, but I got over it and enjoyed the movie. I’ll admit I tried finding other movies or games that this movie reminded me of, and so far I came up with the Shakespearean play, Hamlet with the uncle killing his brother to be king, and the game Final Fantasy X. I thought the princess reminded me of Yuna, and how loyal she was to getting the dagger to the rightful place. The last point could be a bonus, I guess.

The last low about Sands of Time, is of course our Academy Award nominee actor, Jake Gyllenhaal. There has been a controversy revolving around him about playing a Persian, hypothetically speaking, a person who is supposed to be of color. I wasn’t impressed by the actor’s performance, as Prince Dastan that much. People have said, he’s an actor he’s supposed to play characters that are different from him, but for me, it was hard to believe he was Persian. He lost me there. Yes, he looked like the guy from the game, but for some people that wasn’t enough. For me, personality, I thought the lead role should have gone to a Persian instead. I still would have paid money to see a non-famous face. Well, that’s my perspective on things.