Parkour, Parkour!

The Flick

Generally, videogame-to-movie adaptions are some of the worst films made.  Studios generally take an awesome game, add a couple of shitty writers and an even worse director (coughUwe Bollcough) to turn out a pile that not only pisses off their intended audience, but does poorly at the box office.  Sitting through bombs like Super Maro Bros, House of the Dead and Alone in the Dark will further prove my point.  When Prince of Persia The Sands of Time was announced last year with Jerry Bruckheimer and Walt Disney Studios involved, I was slightly less apprehensive.   Fortunately, the team along with director Mike Newell has crafted a film that gamers and non-gamers alike will enjoy. 

Unlike the console game of the same name released back in 2003, the film focuses on a completely new and unrelated story.  The dagger-reversing-time concept returns here, but with a limited use.  Not only that, our prince now has a name, Dastan.  When the young prince (William Foster) defends another child in the marketplace from persecution, King Sharaman (Ronald Pickup), sees his noble actions and adopts him as his own. Raised alongside his other two sons Tus (Richard Coyle) and Garsiv (Toby Kebbell), he grew up with no royal blood, no chance for the throne and a prince only in name. 

**Warning, the rest of this review contains some minor spoilers**

Fast forward 15 years later and adult Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal), along with his brothers and their uncle Nizam (Ben Kingsley), are preparing to invade the holy city of Alamut.  Nizam’s informant has discovered that they are creating weapons for Persia’s enemies. When the siege starts, Princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton) reveals an object, giving it to a soldier who must flee the city in order to keep it safe.  Dastan kills the solider, discovering that he was in possession of the Dagger of Time, a legendary blade that grants its holder the ability to briefly go back in time. 

Upon capturing the city, the Persians celebrate their victory with the arrival of King Sharaman.  Dastan is tricked into giving his father a poisoned prayer robe that burns him to death.  Now framed for the murder of the king, Dastan must escape the city with Tamina in an attempt to clear his name while also protecting the dagger.  On the journey they meet a group of bandits, in the valley of slaves, led by ostrich racing-organizer Sheik Amar (Alfred Molina) and his Ngbaka (master of throwing knives) friend Seso (Steve Toussaint). This unlikely pairing offers most of the comedic bits throughout the film and each scene with Alfred Molina in it are some of the best the movie offers.

Escaping the valley of slaves, Dastan and Tamina return to Persia for King Sharaman's funeral. Upon trying to convince his uncle Nizam that he did not the cause his father's death, he discovers burns on his hands, indicating he was the one who poisoned the prayer robe.  Upon escaping the city once more Tamina reveals that beneath Alamut is an enormous sandglass containing the legendary Sands of Time.  With the power of the dagger, one could use the sandglass to reverse time indefinitely.  Nazim would use the power to change history, allowing him to be the king.

Caught once again by Sheik Amar, the group races to place the dagger in a sanctuary that will remove the dagger from existence.  Once there they are assaulted by Garsiv’s men along with a new threat sent by Nizam, the Hassansin.  Garsiv finally believes Dastan and discovers the truth about Nizam but dies shortly after.  Dastan and Tamina, along with Sheik and the Ngbaka, survive the ordeal but lose the dagger to the Hassansins.  Now the four of them must race back to Alamut to retrieve the dagger and stop Nizam before he can unleash the Sands of Time.

In the game, pressing the hilt of the dagger allowed the player to rewind time briefly to escape a fatal fall or a killing blow.  The film’s version of the dagger offers the same abilities to Dastan, but in much shorter quantities. When he does use it, it creates some of the more memorable and special effects-laden moments in the film.  The scene where he destroys the Hassansin snakes is particularly awesome.

Despite the film not following the storyline from the games, Prince of Persia The Sands of Time offers plenty of nods to the 2003 video game release.  Fans of the games will recognize plenty of moments where Dastan runs along walls, swings on poles and in one exciting scene, hops along the tops of posts in order to escape Alamut.  The addition of David Belle (District B13, District 13 Ultimatum) as the Parkour stunt coordinator was definitely a good choice.  It’s obvious that Jake Gyllenhaal packed on quite a few pounds of muscle for the role of the prince and it really makes the acrobatic portions as well as the fight scenes in the film much more believable.  The original game protagonist’s thin frame made stunts less so, but being that it was a game, we didn’t care.  

Audio and Video

Despite there being a large amount of dull browns, tans and blacks used throughout this film, it makes the bright and strong colors used in the background really stand out.  This is a great looking film, 1080p High Def 2.40:1 widescreen presentation looks incredible.  The action sequences and special effects look great.  There’s a slight graininess to the picture throughout, but with the amount of dust and sand on location while filming, I think it adds more to the overall effect rather than detracting from it. 

Despite the lack of a 7.1 channel soundtrack, the 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio one present here sounds incredible.  It offers plenty of rumbles and booms that will certainly shake the floor.   The voice work is never overpowered by Harry Gregory-Williams’s awesome score which complements everything throughout this film.  It does a great job of building the intense scenes and there are a lot of them throughout POP’s near two hour run time.

Special Features and Packaging

Disney has made another incredible attempt at turning the masses over to Blu-ray with this release.  Included here in this three disc slip-case collection is a Blu-ray feature disc with extras, a DVD feature disc with an extra, and digital copy disc feature.

The Blu-ray disc contains the following extras:

• CineExplore: The Sands of Time Featurette
• Deleted Scene: The Banquet – Garsiv Presents Heads

The DVD disc contains the following extra:

• An Unseen World: Making of Prince of Persia

Gone is the standard commentary track that appears in most special feature collections and replaced by Disney’s CinExplore feature.  It runs alongside the entire film and during some scenes a small dagger of time will appear on the right side of the screen.  When it appears you can press the OK/Enter button before the sand runs out to trigger a small behind-the-scenes clip.  They feature details on how the scene was filmed, how the set or clothing was designed and how special effects were used. It’s a much better way to present behind-the-scenes material and it works great here.  It really makes watching the film a much more rewarding experience instead of the poorly dubbed commentary track that plagues most films. 

The one deleted scene, “The Banquet – Garsiv Presents Heads” runs about 90 seconds and takes place at the point that Dastan is supposed to escort Tamina to the victory celebration.  Gastav offers a gift to his father in the form of the heads of his enemies, set atop silver platters.  Being as it’s the only deleted scene, complete with a short run time, I’m curious as to why it was left it out.  The Unseen World featurette is the only real extra on the DVD version of the film.  It runs about 16 minutes and focuses heavily on what it was like filming in Morocco.  It features info on the scenery, how nice they were treated by the people living there and how they dealt with the heat.

Overall

Prince of Persia The Sands of Time is a fun adventure movie that offers a little something for everyone.  It lacks the depth of a great classic but that doesn’t stop it from being one of the best video game based movies ever made.

ComicsOnline gives Prince of Persia The Sands of Time on Blu-ray 4.5 out of 5 forbidden sands.

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