Review of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010) by Russell G — 01 Sep 2012

Movies based on video games rarely work well and this is no exception. The problem was not a shallow concept or lack of interesting characters but rather poor acting and awful writing, which can ruin any movie.

It is astounding to see Hollywood whitewashing the silver screen this bad in 2010. Using a light haired American white guy and a fair skinned British woman as Persians is unforgivable, especially when the acting is as bad as it is.

On top of that they do not have Middle Eastern accents, instead they have British accents! Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arterton may be pretty faces and they may have sold some tickets but they hurt this movie overall.

The first part of the movie is nothing but over the top action sequences that are just too fast, acrobatic and farfetched to believable or enjoy, even for a movie. When the main plot device finally comes into to play it recovers a little, but the other major drawback is that it is highly predictable.

The bad guys look like bad guys and do not surprise you when they double cross the hero. The high kill count of critical characters only seems temporary when it can be undone by rewinding time. It can be enjoyed if you turn off your brain and try and ignore the shortcomings but that is not easy to do.