The film “Prince of Persia: Sands of Time” is not that smart, but it’s thoroughly enjoyable, thanks in most part to Jake Gyllenhaal.
Gyllenhaal plays a former street rat who has been adopted by the king of the Persian Empire and raised in nobility. Fast-forward 20 years: after leading the charge up the ramparts of a formidable city, the Prince of Persia claims a peculiar dagger as his booty. Soon after the prince is framed for the murder of his regent father, and forced on the lam, trekking across the harsh climes of Middle East.
Along the way, the prince picks up the mouthy, conniving princess of the recently vanquished city-state. When the princess makes an attempt on his life, Dastan discovers the power of his found dagger, which lets him rewind time and replay the previous moment’s actions. With this weapon in hand, the prince and princess embark on a mission to expose the assassin and save the empire.
As far as plot goes, “Prince” is pretty average for an action movie. Many of the tropes are culled from a variety of sources. You’ve got your Prodigal Son parable, your Hamlet-ian motivation and your Disney’s “Aladdin” origin story. Even Dastan’s dagger seems a quick talismanic swap for Aladdin’s lamp (unfortunately, it doesn’t produce a coke-addled Robin Williams). Yet for all these disparate structural appropriations, the story gels. It’s a cookie cutter script, but “Prince” is still an appetizing cookie.
The only problem is the successive creeping reminders that you’ve seen this movie somewhere before.
Fortunately, with plenty of action, director Mike Newell paces the film well and keeps those uneasy feelings of deja vu from boiling over. Along with the motley plot, the film has a few twists that surprise, but a few that feel like clunky Shyamalan reveals.
But a good story isn’t what people who see tent poles like “Prince” pay for. Jake Gyllenhaal is the main attraction and he does an admirable job playing a sheepish if somewhat underdeveloped hero.
While the prince is widely acknowledged as an elevated urchin, Gyllenhaal never seems to incorporate this in his performance. Gyllenhaal doesn’t plumb many emotional depths here as he’s been known to (as in “Brothers” and “Zodiac”), but he brings something far more enjoyable to the table with his sense of humor. He sidesteps looking ridiculous by adding a smile to some cheesy dialogue, and flashes a cocky grin when outnumbered.
It might be blasphemy but the Prince of Persia recalls a bit of Han Solo. The Gyllenhaal-as-chiseled-hunk phenom also makes him a much more believable successor to Harrison Ford than the profane designation of Shia LaBeouf in the latest “Indiana Jones.”
Supporting the Gyllenhaal peep show are Gemma Arterton and Ben Kingsley. Arterton, playing the princess, is repeatedly described as a “great beauty” in the film. Sure, she’s a pretty face, but her fiery persona is the real jewel. That feistiness couples perfectly with Gyllenhaal’s nonchalance, making the requisite romantic interest of summer action flicks, well, actually interesting. On the other hand, Ben Kingsley does an adequate job as a Persian noble but the fact that he’s schlepping for a piece of blockbuster pie is just depressing.
All in all, “Prince” is pretty solid summer fare. In reality, all of the aforementioned elements are slices of Wonder Bread to sandwich the meaty action. And the action is where the movie delivers. The sword fights, brawls and acrobatics get the adrenaline pumping.
Mike Newell has a much better handle on action now than when he made his first departure from romantic comedy in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.” There are still vestiges of the hurried and awkward cuts that plagued “Potter,” but for the most part, Newell succeeds.
One of the reasons Newell does so well with “Prince” is his appreciation of its source material. The “Prince of Persia” video game franchise dates back to 1989 and has been a staple of the fanboy community ever since. Yet these same fanboys have had a rocky relationship with film studios that treat video games like a scriptwriter’s farm league.
The myriad video-game-to-movie adaptations have been butchered on film. “Super Mario Bros.” was the first and made a lot of money. Yet the film simply took the story and left the elements of gaming behind, as if it was simply another book adaptation.
More adaptations followed suit: “Mortal Kombat,” “Double Dragon,” and “Resident Evil.” All the while non-video game-based films started to feel more like Mario. The “Star Wars” prequels adapted the structure of bosses and mini-bosses while “Cloverfield” took up the camera pioneered by first-person shooters. When video game adaptations did start incorporating elements of the medium, in “Doom” and “Hitman,” the attempts were often half-baked or overdone.
“Prince” successfully transposes elements of the video game medium into a movie. The first 25 minutes uses first-person (“GoldenEye”), faux-cutscenes (“Syphon Filter”), shots that locate enemy weaknesses (“House of the Dead”) and wide-angle army movements (“Rome: Total War). The Persian archers even point their crossbows like Marines point their rifles in “Call of Duty.” These features conflate the two mediums, which is a perfect move for “Prince.” It not only sates the fanboys but also makes what could be a routine summer action flick into something far more interesting.