too much exposition slows down beginning

Rating: 5/10 (20 August 2014)

It's the ancient empire of Persia in the Royal City of Nasaf. King Sharaman rules the empire with his brother Nizam (Ben Kingsley). Sharaman has two sons and adopts the brave orphan Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal). As young men, he's in a campaign to subdue Koshkhan. There is news that the City of Alamut ruled by Princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton) is making weapons for their enemy. Nizam convinces Prince Tus (Richard Coyle) to attack despite misgivings from Dastan. Dastan is able to win the battle with his skillful attack. He recovers a special dagger during the battle. King Sharaman is angry at Tus for invading the holy city. He sets Tamina to marry Dastan instead of Tus. Then the robe, which is originally from Tus and convinced Dastan to gift to King Sharaman, kills the king. Dastan is accused of regicide and he escapes along with Tamina. The dagger turns out to be a powerful weapon that can turn back time.
The Byzantium backstory kills the pacing of this movie at the start. It's a quick death by exposition. Gyllenhaal isn't charming enough or compelling enough. Arterton is just angry all the time. This is a lot of sand and a lot of action overload. It's not irredeemable but the problems wore me out. I wonder if a small break could help the leads develop some more chemistry. It's almost passable but...