Friday, November 19, 2010

The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Here is another summer action movie with a good director, but considerably less appealing than, say, SALT. The reason seems to be that it is based upon a video game. This causes for just a myriad of journeying ventures that lead nowhere and action sequences with various baddies. However, the film is better than one might think. For, Jake Gyllenhaal as the lead is actually quite appealing, and some of the action is silly enough to grin at. In the movie, Gyllenhaal is an adopted prince who receives a magical dagger that allows one to travel back in time. His father (the king) is murdered and Gyllenhaal is framed. He escapes from the palace and seeks to redeem himself by proving who the real murderer is. Prince of Persia unfortunately missteps largely in the second half (although the first half was not really so good, except for one very funny sequence with a flock of ostriches). These missteps lie in logic. It logically makes no sense and it is frustrating to watch the characters take leaps of faith. "You can't put the magical dagger in it's magic rock holster or else somethin' bad might happen and we'll all die," is about the extent of the dialogue. The movie would then proceed to contradict itself by something awesome happening when putting the dagger in the magic rock. This could have been good or at least appealing with a better script, but the second half especially is so dimwitted that it's not worth it.
Prince of Persia: ★★1/2

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