Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

The drama and magic of cinema is missing in this video game substitute.

Prince of Persia appears a direct adaptation from video game to film, almost like an edit. The film looks complete from the first scenes and all the action seems choreographed to a tee. The magic of cinema, the story unravelling through character, motivation, drama is missing, and what you have is a tale arriving in your movie theatre through predestination, as it were.

Granted, the film is aimed at adolescents during summer leisure, and granted that the film is a story of fabled Persia. Yet, cardboard depictions of the Middle East with a cast that has not the faintest connection to the region, and a depiction of Persians as a bunch of war-mongering savages does show cultural insensitivity.

This is a film that is so retro, it takes you back decades to the studio era on the mysterious Orient. The  film is about Prince Dastan (Gyllenhaal) and his quest for a magic dagger that can reverse the sands of time. You might have been killed in a sword fight the first time round, but once you press the jewel on the handle of this dagger, you can go back, change the course of the fight and make sure that it’s the other guy who’s dead.

This is a pretty handy gizmo in a film about palace intrigue and murder most foul. It’s also perfect for an interactive video game—how do you dodge the thrust of the sword, how do you reorder the course of events to your advantage?

But here you are stuck in movie mode in Prince of Persia, and so you watch passively as Dastan is framed for the murder of his father the King, come to life when he woos a feisty Princess (Arterton), cheer him on when he challenges the Nizam (Kingsley) and cringe in embarrassment every time this Prince of Persia speaks English with a fake royal accent. Off with his head.

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