Fun Persian adventure is spectacular, but convoluted with no depth

Rating: 5/10 (12 November 2016)

Released in 2010 and directed by Jim Mike Newell, "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" stars Jake Gyllenhaal as an adopted son of the king of Persia and Gemma Arterton as a princess of a nearby kingdom. They team-up after the former becomes a fugitive with a magic dagger. Ben Kingsley, Richard Coyle, Toby Kebbell, Alfred Molina and Steve Toussaint have supporting roles.
Based on the video game, this was supposed to be the start of a franchise in the mold of the Pirates of the Caribbean flicks, but it was not to be due to disappointing box office results. The first 45-50 minutes are great, reminiscent of the various Sinbad movies but with no-seafaring, way more action and all-around superior production values. It's like the Conan the Barbarian films, but less dour and brooding; sorta akin to "The Mummy" (1999) and "The Mummy Returns" (2001).
Like my title blurb says, "Prince of Persia" is spectacular as far as production quality goes, but after the first 50 minutes it goes downhill with a needlessly convoluted plot and one action scene after another. There are a lot of amusing and 'exciting' things going on, but the story fails to hook; everything morphs into a tedious blur. On the positive side, Jake's a heroic protagonist and Gemma is ravishing in an offbeat way, although the filmmakers shoulda taken more advantage of her presence.
The film runs 116 minutes and was shot in Morocco.
GRADE: C+