Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Genre: Action/Adventure

Director: Mike Newell

Screenplay: Boaz Yakin, Doug Miro, Carlo Bernard

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, and Ben Kingsley

After a great act of courage witnessed by the King, Dastin is at once adopted by the King and raised as one of his sons, a prince. As an adult, Dastin travels with his brothers and uncle for battle, except he is persuaded to wage war upon the wrong city. This decision changes his life and leads Dastin on an adventure to save his name and his existence.

This film, based off the popular video game, is an action/adventure that achieves its main goal of a superb visual experience. The world depicted in this film is gorgeous as well as believable. The sad thing about these movies, is that they tend to be visually awesome, but the story and acting leaves you with an eh. The acting in this film was as well as I expected. There were certainly no Oscar performances, but a certain level of excellence was expected with the likes of Ben Kingsley, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Alfred Molina. They add a little class to the film and keep their characters believable. The only thing that would have made this film better would have been a stronger focus of the story. I felt at times the story was presented to us as the outline of the real story. There was just so much emphasis on look that they seemed to forget that there is more to a story than a plot. It still wasn’t a terrible film, though for personal fears, I could have done with less snakes. *shivers*

As I said before the acting was okay. I don’t think that it is within Ben Kingsley’s range to be terrible anymore. Jake Gyllenhaal was at his usual par. The only thing remotely different about him was his well defined physique. I certainly have nothing to complain about that. Gemma Arterton seems to be the newest British import for actresses. Her face is popping up everywhere you look. She really is not a bad actress, and I believe there will be a lot to look forward to coming from her future performances.

I will leave this review with one last comment. It is a question I kept asking myself throughout the entire film. Why is it that a film portraying a time period of the past that does not take place in America must always feel the need to use British accents to further the sensation of a foreign culture, regardless of that culture actually being in England? I don’t get it.

I give this film 3 Buttery Kernals.

Coming Soon: The 31 days of Halloween