Overall good but thanks for nothing, Hollywood.

Rating: 6/10 (20 August 2010)

I'm a big fan of the Sands of Time computer game and thought that it was a fortunate and rare confluence of great gameplay, a good story and intelligent writing. The movie, unfortunately, is nowhere near as good.
I don't know whether this is the fault of the writers or the directors, but this movie, which, in general, is good but not great, is nearly ruined by the presence of Alfred Molina's character. He is completely anachronistic and his modern speech pattern (planted, no doubt, to help today's audience "cope" or "get it") is almost the undoing of the entire film. Note: I don't blame the actor; he plays it like he's told to play it.
For the benefit of the writers and/or director:
The term "bureaucracy" originated in 18th century France; the word "entrepreneur" also originated in France, at the beginning of the 19th century; the names of the days "Tuesday" and "Thursday" are Middle English in origin, originally Norse and Germanic, and came into use around the 13th century. All of these words are used in this movie by Molina's character, in his very modern British delivery, which is presumably set somewhere between the 8th and 14th centuries (from the presence of the Hashshashin), in PERSIA.
Hollywood's usual spectacular underestimation of the audience's intelligence is in full flight here. Thanks for nothing.
But, um, otherwise good.