I went into the screening of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time with fairly mixed expectations. Sure, I enjoyed the trailers, but at the same time it had the same fairly-corny look and dialogue of many Jerry Bruckheimer films and, the fact that it was a video game adaptation, a genre that has far from thrived in its short existence, did not help matters much either. Of course, this isn’t an Uwe Boll film, but the fact of the matter is there just hasn’t been a successful video game adaptation since Tomb Raider… if you can call that “successful.” So I sat down with a bit of trepidation and stood up two hours later surprisingly entertained, although the film was not without its flaws.

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I guess one of the main things that surprised me was the fact that the hot new “sport” of Parkour was apparently invented in Persia. A good chunk of the film is devoted to Prince Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal) and his daring escapes from his many would-be captors by monkey-climbing up buildings and jumping from rooftop to rooftop with reckless, Bourne-like abandon. Who would’ve thought that such a new sport has such historic roots… Still, this aspect is a decent metaphor for most of the film: while it is a tad bothersome and annoying, it’s still a lot of fun as well if you can switch off your brain for a few hours.

I haven’t played Jordan Mechner’s video game this film was based off of - either the old-school late-80s version or the newer next-gen version - so I can’t really comment on how closely this film sticks to the game. The film was written by Boaz Yakin and the writing team of Doug Miro and Carlos Bernard, based off Mechner’s original screenplay, and while the film feels rather familiar, it still finds a way to work as well. The film starts out with the story of how young Dastan, a street urchin who one day puts on a daring and bold display in front of the king, wins the king’s respect and is adopted into royalty. Years later, Dastan is all growns up and is still the outcast in many ways, leading a team of ragtag soldiers while his brothers Garsiv (Toby Kebbell) and Tus (Richard Coyle) lead the army of their father, King Sharaman (Ronald Pickup). Garsiv and Tus, acting on some bad information, attack a holy city which is essentially forbidden to be breached and there they discover the legendary beauty of Princess Tamina (the gorgeous Gemma Arterton) and they also discover that their attack went against their father’s wishes. While peace is momentarily made, King Sharaman dies by a poisoned cloak that Dastan gave him (which his brother Tus gave him), setting him up and forcing him to flee with a surprising guest, Princess Tamina, who is really after the dagger that Dastan had procured - a dagger that can turn back time.

Yes, like I said, a lot of this is very familiar and, really, it doesn’t really break any new ground of originality as the story proceeds, showing the back-and-forth between Dastan and Tamina, their animosity towards each other growing into love and blah blah blah. The thing is, though, despite the lack of originality, the story is still very fluid and manages to keep you entertained. While a lot of the film seems to be taken from the Bruckheimer playbook, they are still proven plays that work. True, it’s not very hard to guess what happens next at any point in the story, but, despite their lack of originality at times, the nicely-paced story still pulls you along and a slick tempo. I will say, though, that the script does try to do way too much at times, and does take several turns that it really doesn’t need to take that can be annoying and confusing, but it still is a decent ride overall. Perhaps the most surprising part of all, however, was the restraint that was shown.

Films produced by Jerry Bruckheimer have long been known for going all out and over the top, trying to leapfrog over whatever they did in the last film. Perhaps it’s just that there isn’t much higher to go these days, but it seemed like Prince of Persia pulled back a little bit. I was expecting tons of effects shots and fiery explosions (despite the time period) and especially a score that beat you over the head with emotional direction. We really don’t get any of this at all, with, really, just a handful of effects shots when the magical dagger comes into play, to my memory, no explosions and a very even-handed score by Harry Gregson-Williams, a Tony Scott favorite whose effective score doesn’t distract from the screen like some of Bruckheimer’s films have the tendency to do. What was also surprising is the restraint used in the time-travel device, an aspect that can easily overrun or bog a film down in semantics, but they played this card perfectly, which leads to a rather surprisingly effective ending.

Jake Gyllenhaal certainly won’t be polishing up his Oscar speech from this film, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t give a solid performance, despite the supposed controversy over the “whitewashing” of this film (i.e. a white guy playing a Persian). Jake does a fine job in the title role, showing a decent witty side while also kicking some ass in the numerous action sequences and fight scenes, although it’s quite clear that director Mike Newell isn’t entirely proficient in capturing these kinds of scenes. Gemma Arterton plays her role of the icy, strong-willed Princess Tamina to a T and I was incredibly and pleasantly surprised by the comedic relief provided by Alfred Molina as Sheik Amar, who perpetrates the legend that the area of the desert he runs is “dangerous” to ward off the one thing he hates most of all: tax collectors. I’ve honestly never seen Alfred Molina in any kind of comedic role before, let alone one this wonderfully effective. He truly steals the show practically every time he is in front of the camera. Of course, Ben Kingsley does a fine job (i.e. par for the course) as Dastan’s uncle Nizam and Toby Kebbell and Robert Coyle give solid performances as the brothers Garsiv and Tus.

Director Mike Newell certainly has experience with big-budget studio affairs (See: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), but he certainly is a newbie to such an action-centric film like this one and, overall, he does a solid job. While the fight scenes are a bit shaky and hard to follow at times, you still get a good feel for the action and I have to believe that it was Newell, no stranger to smaller-budgeted fare, who could be responsible for the restraint I was mentioning earlier. The film has a very nice flow to it and while some of the situations might seem overly accentuated, Newell breezes us through this journey.

While you can bitch all you want about a white dude like Jake Gyllenhaal playing a character called the Prince of Persia, and how the film is “whitewashed,” or that the British accents might seem out of place/out of whack, or why the hell Parkour was started there and we’re just hearing about it now… if these kinds of things really distract you from the movie, then you probably shouldn’t go. If you can kick back and turn off the old brain for a few hours, though, you’ll probably have a decent time.