The colon and the two-part title of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time are advance warning that, if this movie is a hit, it will be followed by more — more Prince of Persia titles with subtitles after the colon. Expect something along the lines of Prince of Persia: The Goblet of Fire or Prince of Persia: At World’s End.
And it is likely to be a hit of reasonable proportions, what with the summer blockbuster season looming in the United States and a hard marketing push behind it. We critics know when a film has a big marketing budget because we’re not allowed to take cellphones into the screening in case we record the whole movie in shaky low-res and sell it off to the DVD pirates of Penang.
Based on a video game, Prince of Persia has as its titular hero Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal), who is raised from the life of a feisty street child by nice King Sharaman (Ronald Pickup) in the prologue and becomes the third of three princes in the king’s household. That household also contains the king’s own brother, Nizam (Ben Kingsley), whose over-use of eyeliner should warn us that he’s not the entirely supportive figure he seems.
There’s a sententious voice-over to set the scene a bit more and lead us to the main title, and then — kaboom —Â it’s 15 years later. Dastan is now presumably about 22 years old. The king’s armies, led by the three princes, are on military campaign. They are thinking of laying siege to a city called Alamut, which is allegedly making and selling weapons to the enemy.
This is a holy city, we are told, which is ruled by a princess who is famously gorgeous, as of course all princesses in such movies must be. This Princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton) is also a high priestess who has a sacred duty involving a mystic dagger that holds the secret to … well, let’s just say that in the wrong hands it could cause the wholesale destruction of the entire world.
So there’s a lot at stake here, though filmgoers are by now so used to the possibility of the whole world being destroyed that they are likely to take this danger in their stride. More interesting are the intrigues around the king, his brother and the three princes, and the perilous journey that Prince Dastan must make, along with Princess Tamina, to prevent the aforementioned global destruction. And a few other things.
Thus the basic plot of the film is generated and maintained by the dagger; the story moves ahead in episodes as the dagger is lost, found, lost, and found again. It’s rather repetitious in that respect, and one can be forgiven for feeling a tad irked when the damn dagger once more slips from Dastan’s and/or Tamina’s grasp and has to be recovered yet again. But at least there’s some tension between Dastan and Tamina, a sort of African Queen plotline in which their mutual annoyance will, naturally, be transformed into something else as they overcome the obstacles of their quest and their different agendas converge.
Both Gyllenhaal and Arterton are pleasing visual presences, and they carry the movie with starry ease. In the case of Gyllenhaal, in particular, we knew he was a good actor, and his role here is hardly a stretch. He deploys a little of his acting skill as Dustan, though what with all the highly choreographed action sequences there’s not much for him to do, acting-wise, beyond a few basic facial expressions. Still, he puts his enormous puppy-dog eyes to good use.
As for the action, it is swift, seamless, acrobatic and bloodless. Gyllenhaal carries it off admirably, having buffed up big-time for the role (though not to Arnie proportions, thank the gods of Persia) and having acquired a very convincing semi-Estuary British accent to match those of the rest of the cast. He hasn’t even shaved off his chest hair, which is the kind of thing Ridley Scott would call historically accurate.
If the film is bloodless, literally as well as figuratively, that’s because it’s made for people in their early teens, and the filmmakers haven’t added much complexity to the video-game requirements. Alfred Molina, at the head of a competent supporting cast, adds some welcome comedy as a disreputable desert entrepreneur, and the rest of the bits fall into place. The cinematography is shiny, the CGI is sweeping, and it’s possible to find Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time pretty entertaining without really having to connect with it fully. The mind can be disengaged and popcorn can be eaten throughout.