No flying rugs but...

Rating: Null/10 (26 August 2010)

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010)
Director: Mike Newell Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, Ben Kingsley
The titular prince (Gyllenhaal) is a wanted man after being accused of murdering his own adoptive father following the siege of a hallowed city. Now on the run, the prince and the princess (Arterton) of the conquered city must protect a special dagger which has the ability to affect time and destroy the world.
Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney looked to fill holes in their blockbuster schedule in between "National Treasure" and "Pirates of the Caribbean" with this video game inspired initial salvo. But its lackluster box office may have put a damper on their plans. This expensive adventure film has some decent moments. It occasionally conjures up the epic scope of say a "Lawrence of Arabia" and the adventure of "Indiana Jones" and quirkiness of the aforementioned "Pirates" series. But that's kind of the problem. The feeling we've seen it before. Director Newell does what he will with the script being a graduate from the Hogwarts' directing chair so you know he has experience in big screen fantasy. The overabundant CGI set-pieces now smack of 3D gimmickry which just ends up worsening those aspects of the film. All in all "Prince" is an OK popcorn muncher but just like it is when you get to the bottom of the bucket the last few kernels are a bit stale and leave you wanting a fresh bucket, oh and you really need to go. Rating: So-So