Video games have always been a difficult medium to translate to film. Think about it, can you name a good movie that was based on a video game? You’d be hard put to do it. I’ll give you the “Resident Evil” series and maybe “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” but that is about it. Certainly in resent years that haven’t been any successful adaptations when you consider the crop of films we’ve seen including “Bloodrayne,” “Doom,” “Hit Man” and “Max Payne.” But the question remains, why? With CGI and other visual effects being at the state of the art level that they are now, why hasn’t Hollywood been able to tap into the genre with the success rate that it has with comic books? Especially when you consider that most video games have a photo-realistic look now. Well, perhaps that will all change with producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s latest big-summer blockbuster film from Disney Studios, “Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time.”
The film begins by introducing us to our hero, Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal), while he is just a boy. Born an orphaned street urchin, one day Dastan is spotted by the King and because of his courage and selflessness is adopted and chosen to live as a Prince in the King’s castle. The story picks up ten years later as Dastan is an adult and now a valuable leader in the King’s army. The King is growing older and will soon be handing over his kingdom to the oldest of his two birth sons, which is fine by Dastan who is happy with the life he has been granted and feels no desire to be King. Dastan’s adopted father has a brother, Nizam (Kingsley), who acts as the King’s Counsel. He is also a father figure to Dastan, who is the bravest warrior in the entire kingdom. When it is discovered that the Aleutians are acquiring “weapons of mass destruction,” the King dispatches his army, led by his three sons to seize their kingdom and capture the beautiful Princess Tamina (Arterton).
With some incredibly daring maneuvers, Dastan is able to lead the King’s Army in successfully fulfilling their goals and at the same time acquires one of the special weapons, “The Dagger Of Time,” an instrument that allows it’s possessor to travel to the past for short moments in time. Unaware of the power that the weapon posses, Dastan blindly goes along with his family’s wishes and watches as the two kingdoms are combined by the marriage of Tamina and Dastan’s oldest brother. Rather than fighting this, Tamina agrees because she secretly wants to get the dagger back from Dastan. However, when an item that Dastan’s oldest brother gives to him to give to the King as a gift ends up killing his adopted Father, Dastan is accused of treason and betrayal against his family. Innocent of the charges but with no one willing to believe him, Dastan frees Tamina and they team-up on a quest to clear his name, stop Nizam and protect the dagger.
Unbeknownst to Dastan, “The Dagger Of Time” is a mystical weapon that was a gift from the Gods and Princess Tamina has been given the duty of guarding the weapon so that it does not fall into the wrong hands. She believes that the Gods have chosen Dastan to help her on her journey. Eager to clear his name and return to his comfortable life, Dastan reaches out to his Uncle Nizam at his father’s funeral and tells him that it was his brother who gave the deadly gift to the King not him. However, much to Dastan’s surprise it is revealed that it was in fact Nizam who put the whole thing in motion in order to kill the king, imprison Dastan for the crime and obtain the dagger in order to go back in time and kill his older brother when they were children so that he would instead be crowned king. Now Dastan must team with Tamina, who he initially bumps heads with, and Sheik Amar, who is played brilliantly with humor by Alfred Molina, in order to protect the dagger from Nizam who could end up destroying the world with it if he is able to corrupt it’s power.
The film is an absolute spectacle from beginning to end and is actually an extremely enjoyable thrill-ride. Jake Gyllenhaal stars in the lead role and a lot of fans doubted the young dramatic actors ability to carry an action-oriented role like this but the actor pull it off in spades. In fact, his smug charm added a lot to the character and Gyllenhaal was believable in the role. Also great in the movie is actress Gemma Arterton who has recently made a name for herself in films like “Quantum Of Solace” and “Clash Of The Titans.” In this film the actress is allowed an opportunity to really come alive in this role and is believable as a 16th Century Persian Princess. Legendary actor Sir Ben Kingsley is also given an opportunity to really chew the scenery up in this movie as the evil Nizam, nemesis to Gyllenhaal’s Dastan. Kingsley, who is often cast as the villain these days is marvelous in the part and seems to be having as much fun playing the role as he is to watch doing it. His character’s relationship with Dastan is not unlike that of Hamlet and Claudius’ relationship in the famous William Shakespeare play and as an accomplished Shakespearian actor himself, I can’t think of a better actor than Kingsley to cast in the role.
Director Mike Newell, who is no stranger to fantasy films after working on “Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire,” does an excellent job of orchestrating all the moving pieces of this gigantic summer movie. Jordan Merchner, who created the video game that the film is based on, did an exceptional job writing the script and finding a narrative to use that would incorporate all the different versions of the game from over the years but would still have a strong emotional center that non-gamers could latch on to. While I know that accomplished screenwriters like Boaz Yakin were brought in to do a polish on the script it does strike me that Hollywood may want to take notice and realize that there are accomplished writers in the video game, comic book and fictional-novel industry that understand their work better than anyone else and should be given the first opportunity at adapting their own material.
In the end, this is a Jerry Bruckheimer film and audiences should be aware that this film comes with everything you would expect from a big, Jerry Bruckheimer, summer Disney film. Substance is compromised for style, story is subtracted for visual effects in many places and the acting is secondary to the action. That being said, no one makes a better summer, family adventure film than Bruckheimer. His astounding track record can speak to that but say what you will … this guy knows how to make a movie! If you liked the last few “Pirate” films than you will love this movie because it is far superior to the last few installments of that franchise. My only critique would be that the effects were not done quite as well as I imagined they could be and that was frustrating at times when the “Sands Of Time” effects didn’t look all that spectacular. Also, at times the plot and story could become quite confusing and was hard to follow but I guess in the end it kind of doesn’t matter. I had somewhat low expectations when I went into this film and was very pleasantly surprised. I really enjoyed it and feel that it will be an enjoyable, entertaining summer film for audiences of all ages to go and see. “Prince Of Persia” may not set the bar high as far as filmmaking goes but in the world of video game adapted films, it may be the best that we’ve seen in a long time and certainly leaves the door open for future installments.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is out May 19, 2010.
