CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR

Rating: 9/10 (28 May 2019)

This movie has nearly all the makings of an Epic motion picture. It has an exotic setting, a new crisp plot, plenty of action, and a beautiful woman. Our hero starts out as a street orphan who champions goodness against the Persian army as he jumps around rooftops like the Phantom. However, once he becomes adopted by the king, he loses a lot of personality. He is not as colorful as other leading men in Epic films, mostly due to the writers who gave him lousy lines.
What was really missing in this movie outside of exceptional dialogue was humor. I don't mean turn the movie into a comedy, but when you want to be compared to Pirates..., Indian Jones, or other epics such as Star Wars or even the grand daddy of them all LOTR, they all had some comical element in them with leading men that were able to deliver those lines. This movie lacked that human element and it showed as it failed to hook me.
In spite of the inability of either the script writers or director to create great characters, the plot, action and scenery were enough to carry the film to where it would be enjoyable. There was one "joke" as the princess kept an amulet with the sands of time in it on a necklace located at her cleavage...the last place anyone would look, except maybe Prince Dustin who noticed it right off.
Yes, there is a time travel element to it, but it is not really a time travel movie, i.e. it is not bogged down with nerdy time travel paradoxes. Time travel was a gift from the unnamed god(s).
The movie has a happy ending with a message of hope as well as violence, killing, and snakes. I consider it better entertainment than Robin Hood, or Iron Man II.