Based on a video game of the same name, Prince of Persia: Sand of Time was directed by Mike Newell. It tells of a story of an orphan adopted by a king who already has two sons of his own. The king rules jointly with his brother, Disney produced the movie which is based on the video game of the same name, and just like its movies there must surely be some elements that come from past movies, such as adventures, humor, love, betrayal and brotherly bonding. Just like the Pirates of the Caribbean series, this [Disney] movie is rated 12 for perilous and violent scenes.
Watching this movie can prove to be so tiresome that I usually just pause frequently. For the duration there is more adventure time than there is a story and character development. I could barely understand the details of the story itself and the progress it undergoes. My mind tells me that this film is not worth watching because it has nothing special to offer. So in order to understand it more requires detailed analysis.
There is a young orphan named Dastan who is adopted by the king. Why? Because we can see him involve himself in foolish acts of mischief evading his adversaries. I doubt the king could witness the full events which the orphan could embark on since they took place on rooftops and he was just on horseback. Nonetheless he was saved from amputation and raised as one of the royals, even if his act of bravery was foolhardy. The King believed his family was not complete without an adventurous young blood.
I would have to admit that the kid has some potential to scale those obstacles to evade his captors without crashing through fragile structures and breaking a limb. I doubt he does this everyday prior to this moment when the King is around. Yet it appears he was destined to be the protagonist of the movie unlike his adoptive brothers.
So fifteen years later, Dastan is just as he was before: a cocky, foolhardy prince who loves to get into danger and, in one early scene, a street fight. So much for a prince who "had no eye on the throne"; he is just like Simba from The Lion King (1994). Yet there are some moments he takes his role seriously, only to be dismissed as a street rebel, undermined by his brothers.
The main plot unravels: first, Alamut is falsely implicated for forging weapons of war and is breached by Dastan and his army. Second, the King is killed and Dastan is falsely accused of killing his own adoptive father and wanted for his murder. Princess Tamina aids Dastan to clear his name and discovers a special dagger that can reverse time only with a special type of sand. Along the way they go through perils and encounter bandits who later become their allies.
Some of you may notice that this story takes place in Persia, yet a handful of the protagonists and even the antagonists consist of British cast members while everyone else (the soldiers and extras) are Arabic, Iraqi or Iranian, with one Sudanese. There was a similar case in Aladdin (1994) where the protagonists were voiced by Anglo-Americans while the villains and supporting cast were voiced by Arabs.
I can vouch that this Disney movie throws away the stereotypical damsel-in-distress: Princess Tamina is the type of female who shows no fear for death, or requires a hand of her male companion. She plays hard-to-get and takes control of any difficult situation at hand, carrying on the tradition of female leads to shrug off male advances as if being treated like a trophy, including at a moment where she refuses to wed Prince Tus.
So what is so special about that dagger? It was the catalysis to the siege of Alamut. Dastan deduces that the siege was not to expose the supposed forgery of weapons but to steal the dagger which can enable the user to rewind time and be the only one who remembers what happened prior to the rewind. Nizam, King Sharaman's brother, staged the sige to acquire the dagger and rewind time to reset history and take his brother's place as king. Once again this plot alludes to the plot from The Lion King, even if Nizam is not directly responsible for killing his own brother. I can say that his plan is more subtle than the plan hatched by Scar.
The best aspects of this movie are the time reversals and the fight scenes. Time reversal is enhanced by the effects of sand on the user of the dagger, who sees everything rewound before his very eyes. The fight scenes are just like the game, and are something that was fully-budgeted for and vigorously choreographed. One scene where these two points are well worth the watch is where the vipers controlled by hassansins. Dastan demonstrates swift, flawless defense against the venomous reptiles as though he had prepared for this offense the very minute, after watching the emerge from the sand. Strengths like these help a movie to keep the audience awake where the story, dialogue and chemistry are too inadequate.
As this movie is loosely based on the source material but retells the story and incorporates elements from the other titles of the series, it can be treated as a stark improvement over previous video game movies in terms of relation to the games, characters and plot. You can watch this movie and lose interest in the characters and progression in the story, but you would eventually see how this movie stands out as one that seems to make up for its shortfalls. Though it lacks the essentials of a movie, it stands out as a transition from video game to movie.
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