Movies like this don't come along often- enjoy it in the theatre

Rating: 9/10 (25 May 2010)

Prince of Persia was an immensely enjoyable movie. Below I list the positives and few negatives of the movie before summarising.
Positives - What I liked about Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
~Its beautiful
The visuals in this movie are stunning. Everything from the cinematography of the desert landscapes to the city of Alamut and the beautiful sets are a real treat to look at.
~The two leads are excellent
The chemistry between Gyllenhaal and Arterton is fantastic and they, like the visuals, are great to look at. Arterton is stunning as Princess Tamina and Gyllenhaal is as watchable as always. The supporting actors all do their jobs decently.
~The fight choreography and parkour
Parkour is going to be the new big thing in movieland so I hear and its great to watch, really adding an exciting new element to the tried and tested swordfight
~The story wasn't actually totally predictable
I haven't played the games so I didn't really know what I was in for with the plot, only that it involved some sands of time... Call me a moron but I actually found quite a lot of what happened in the movie very unpredictable and the ending of the movie for me was totally unexpected.
Negatives- What could have been better
~Historical inaccuracy
I thought the movie was meant to be in Sassanid Persia (3rd-7th century AD) but the map at the beginning clearly showed Achaemenid Persia which was quite confusing so the inclusion of crossbows and the mention of the "Turkish" was quite out of place. The Mughuls are also mentioned which is out of place regardless since they Mughuls were Mongols... The movie does include a dagger which can turn back time so perhaps the whole point of moot but I don't feel some more research would have hurt.
~Could have been funnier
The movie could have been a little funnier but the storyline moved at such a pace that there wasn't much chance for much hijinks. There were some funny lines in there however and as I mentioned before, the chemistry between Arteron and Gyllenhaal was very enjoyable
##Conclusion##
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is not the type of movie that comes along often. How often do you really get to see a beautifully shot film set in Ancient Persia featuring such good leads and original story? It was an enjoyable movie and a great movie in its own right I say, bring on the sequels - just don't mess them up like Pirates of the Caribbean.