Movie Review: Prince of Persia (The Sands of Time)

As the great Yogi Berra would say, "It's DejaVu all over again." In other words, I think I have seen this movie before. After all, wasn't Walt Disney's Aladdin (1992) the story about a Persian street urchin turned prince, who goes on a wild adventure, and gets the princess at the end? Take away the animation, Robin Williams as a wacky blue genie, and add in none stop Jerry Bruckheimer action (Producer of such action movies as Pirates of the Caribbean, Top Gun, Armageddon ) and you basically have the same movie.

This time, the prince, Dastan, is played by Jake Gyllenhaal (Brothers, Day After Tomorrow), and the princess by Gemma Arterton (Clash of the Titans), with veteran actor Ben Kingsley playing Nizam, a scheming evil uncle (think Scar in The Lion King) who wants to be King. The plot involves Nizam framing Dastan to get rid of his brother the king, while trying to get his hands on the mystical Dagger of Time. The Dagger, of which the princess is the guardian, would allow Nizam to turn back time, change the course of history and become king. Naturally the movie comes with the chases, stunts, and special effects that one would expect from a Bruckheimer production.

While entertaining, the nonstop action is such that one yearns for a bit more plot or even romance in the in between shots. The most enjoyable performance from the cast is turned in by Alfred Molina (Dr. Octopus in Spider Man 2), who plays the entrepreneur, ostrich racing, Sheik Amar. Molina's efforts accounts for most of the humor in this film. Meanwhile, Gyllenhaal and Arterton do their best to sell the audience a lukewarm "love-hate" relationship.

Still for what it is, (a video game turn action movie) the movie manages to be entertaining. Yet those who have watched Aladdin, will come away with a feeling of DejaVu, only this time there is no Robin Williams to save the day.