Jake Gyllenhaal, Ben Kingsley and Gemma Arterton headline this action-adventure slice of period piece derring-do from producer Jerry Bruckheimer, filled with the sort of exotic locales and visual effects that Hollywood peddles quite well on an annual basis. Oh, and there are ostrich races, too.
So does Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time really catch fire? No, not really. It works reasonably well as a piece of escapist, forgettable small screen entertainment, but it’s not for nothing that the movie was seen as something of an under-performing theatrical dude domestically, grossing $30 of its $90million haul in its opening weekend (even though it would rake in an additional $224 million overseas). For all the Herculean effort expended to give this project lift and consequence, its stakes still feel small, its jostling banter familiar and all its punchy action-drama preordained.
Maybe it’s a result of the source material, and the film’s blindingly obvious franchise ambitions. Adapted as it is from the bestselling videogame series of the same name, the story here is pretty simple and straightforward, built up around fraternal/familial honor and distrust. Some ridiculously solemn opening crawl text and voiceover (“Where Persian sword went, order followed…”) plunks us down outside the holy city of Alamut, where adopted prince Dastan (Gyllenhaal) reluctantly teams up with a native princess, Tamina (Arterton), to safeguard a magical dagger that gives its possessor the power to reverse time and rule the world.
After the sudden death of his father, the king, Dastan finds himself at odds with his brothers (Richard Coyle and Toby Kebbell) and uncle, Nizam (Kingsley), and has to work hard to clear his name and uncover the truth. Adventure, desert escapes and backstabbing ensue (that fun with ostriches, too), all against the backdrop of a narrative that, believe it or not, manages to none-too-subtly sneak in some political statement. (The villain of the piece has secret government assassin squads, and his blundering invasion of a foreign land on trumped-up charges leaves the occupiers unsuccessfully searching for special weapons caches.)
Producer Bruckheimer has enough of a track record of success with these types of film that there are wads of money to throw at the production, and so there is plenty of color and detail in Prince of Persia, though for my money some of the lavish sets — constructed at great cost in Morocco, where the film lensed — actually look a bit chintzy, and too perfect and neat for what should be something a little more gritty and dirty. Or, strike that: could be more interesting if it were so.
Though he has some experience with spectacle in the form of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, director Mike Newell doesn’t have a natural sense of action rhythms — several of the sequences feature both slow-motion and quick edits, to mask deficiencies in coverage — and Prince of Persia suffers mightily in this regard. There’s plenty of swashbuckling and energetic, accented running about, but some of the movie’s comedic relief (in the form of Alfred Molina) feels like a heavy lift, and the film’s playful romantic bickering is fairly insubstantial, owing to a dispiriting lack of engaging chemistry between its leads.
At least technologically speaking, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a solid film to experience the cinematic magic of Blu-ray; Bruckheimer’s productions are nothing if not frame-stuffed, and the pristine 1080p picture and DTS-HD master audio sound quality definitely enhance the action and special effects more than an average action title. In addition to single-disc DVD and single-disc Blu-ray versions, Prince of Persia is also available in a three-disc Blu-ray/DVD combo pack, stored in a cardboard slipcover, which also includes a digital copy of the movie. On DVD, the movie preserves the theatrical exhibition’s 2.40:1 widescreen aspect ratio, with Dolby digital 5.1 English, French and Spanish language tracks, and an English language 2.0 DVS track. On Blu-ray, the film is presented in a 1080p high definition widescreen transfer, with English 5.1 DTS-HD master audio (48kHz/24-bit), English 2.0 DVS, and French and Spanish Dolby digital 5.1 surround sound tracks. Optional English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles are available on each version, which leads to some amusing (and telling) translations of all the background din and clatter (“whooping rhythmically” and “clamoring all” are among the more memorable descriptions).
Most notably, a combo-pack-exclusive interactive “Sands of Time” feature gives fans control of the dagger of time, allowing them to rewind the movie and uncover spun-off, behind-the-scenes magic in over 40 separate segments, each lasting no more than three minutes. It’s a nice touch, certainly, for those given to repeat viewings of the film, or wanting to, say, immediately know more about Gyllenhaal’s workout regiment and the movie’s stunt work. Otherwise, there’s just a single deleted scene, though the DVD version also contains a behind-the-scenes featurette on the film’s production. Running under 20 minutes, the piece includes interview chats with the principal stars, plus all sorts of on-set footage, and interestingly delves into the handcraft work that went into prop making and set construction on site in Morocco. To purchase the three-disc Blu-ray/DVD combo pack, click here. For an eight-dollar coupon off said combo pack, meanwhile, click here. C (Movie) B- (Disc)