Sands of Time strikes a high note!

Rating: 8/10 (7 June 2010)

Before I went to go see this film I was disappointed seeing a lot of negative reviews from professional critics. It scared me just for the fact that I was hoping for a good video game to movie. Well I ignored them and went and saw it...my god they were completely wrong...
Before I go into the review I would like to point out some things: 1. On average from the critics I have seen them complain about this movie being historicaly inaccurate. Really? you are going to nit pick that much? It was not intended for being a history lesson. ITS FICTION! Who really cares? I didn't, and even the video game was not intended for being a history lesson. So stop your complaining! 2. This is by far the best video game to movie I have seen ever put on the big screen. Let me tell you why... First off is the characters- Lets start off with Dastan(Jake Gyllenhaal). Out of all the actors in the world to pick for Dastan the prince, he was to me the very best pick. He didn't just look the part, but he was the part!(with alittle help from the script but Ill get to that later). Just the way he portrayed the prince made me really happy. He felt exaclty like the one from the video game. He was arrogant, but in a smart way. Never going too over the top with one-liners but when he said them they were witty. Although, some of them were at random when he said them to the princess, but its not exactly his fault. Next is princess Tamina(Gemma Arterton) Why what a quite interesting character. She was smart, also very cocky and arrogant like Dastan. The way there relationship went through out the movie was genius! They just had good chemistry, though it seemed like they did not get enough time to really get into it. The relationship between Dastan and Tamina was sorta rushed, thus not taking full potential of it. But the way she changed over the movie was good, she starts off disliking Dastan for just one reason really. He was a Persian who attacked there city. But as the movie progressed and Dastan learned of what was really going on they both changed. Making there characters completely opposite of what they were at the beginning. My only complaint with Tamina was that she fell into the category of "damsel in distress". Which is not that bad, but in the game she fought along side of the prince instead of waiting for him to do everything. The next character is Nizam(Ben Kingsley). He is the evil guy or the antagonist. I don't have much to say about him. Just a predictable villain wanting the royal chair. Kingsley was not amazing but he was not bad.
Moving on to plot: Ahh the juice of the movie. The plot. I just want to go on and thank director Mike Newell and producer Jerry Bruckheimer for taking this movie in a very serious matter. When I first saw the trailer I had the intention of thinking it was going to be like Pirates of The Caribbean. What I mean by that is more jokes, less serious attitude. But boy was I wrong. They did it serious and there was not as much jokes as I thought there was going to be. and to there credit most of them were well placed and funny. The plot is pretty much the plot to Prince of Persia: Sands of Time(video game). but the thing is they added different things to it to make it not an exact copy of the games plot. I don't want to spill the beans on the plot but its not as predictable unless you have played the game...Well OK I will spoil one thing about the movie, and that is the Hassassins. Oh babogies these guys rocked!!! They were swift cold-blooded assassins out to kill Dastan and Tamina. They also reminded me of Assassins Creed by the way they killed, except when they used the sand vipers. In all the plot was well written, action packed, and very different from your average action/adventure flick.
Next is a subcategory: The action- This was the one thing that really got my attention and liking the film. The action was nicely crafted and very acrobatic. Not much CG was used(thank god! I have seen enough of that CG crap from Avatar -.-)Well yes there was CG in the movie but not even that much. Most of it was stunt acting. The thing that stole the show though was the parkor scenes. Parkor is the stlye of fighting that the prince used in the game like wall climbing, wall running, swinging from polls etc. But while that was the highlight of the movie, it disappointed me to see that they under used the parkor.But in the scenes that it was in, it was awesome!! Lastly is the tone and attitude and look of the movie: This movie was gorgeous, the bright and huge city of Persia looked oh-so-real and the desert was and mountains looked great! The attitude was again very serious which just so happens to play to the movies advantage. Not many jokes the fights were brutal. the movie was also not afraid of killing people and showing it. which I liked a lot! The costumes looked believable and all and all it just looked great!(thank you again Jerry Bruckheimer!) To conclude, Prince of Persia is what a video game movie SHOULD BE LIKE! It was very serious the acting was superb and the fight scenes were great! My biggest complaint was less parkor and more traveling. I would definitely check this movie out. Fans will love it too! 8/10