When a very best combat/platform game turns age 21, now it became a Swashbuckler film

Rating: 7/10 (15 June 2010)

Prince of Persia is the BEST PLATFORM GAME on computer I ever played as a child. It's not that industrial standard movies can create new ideas, they have to find a source to make an adaptation, but Sands of Time doesn't stand enough loyal to its title. What not staying loyal to Prince of Persia means, there is not any visually admirable combat with the film at all. When it's been first released, AUTUMN 1989, in Apple II; there were only a palace, a peasant child, a princess under the Caliph's servitude and hundreds of guardians defending the palace. Our peasant child as a spy was there to rescue the princess to bring her back to father the Persian Emperor. Looking at the continuation of the game series, the story is taken back in time about 15 centuries back to Persian realm before the birth of Christ. When I played the 2003 Sands of Time game on X-Box, the combat sense of the game had been gone. It was rather boring and bothersome since our peasant has become a prince, with not much to do other than jumping back and forth over the house roofs like Spider-Man.
What's good with the movie better than its 2003 version of video game is we have more challenges than the game here. It's widely enriched with industrial standards. Classic cat and mouse type tags, rebel and noble girl falling in love with the boy, people from evil side turning to good side, suspicious characters seeking tricky and manipulative ways of possessing more power and authority, good side falls into an adventure/journey as a team, proves the importance of teamwork and beats the odds: The very-well known SWASHBUCKLER clichés since 1950s' Erol Flynn flicks, 1960s' Akira Kurosawa Seven Samurai, 1980s' Conan the Barbarian with Arnie, Indiana Jones with Harrie, 1990s' The Mummy, and from recent years the LOTR and the Pirates of the Caribbean. Prince of Persia has a lot to offer to the video game fans, but not much to offer for movie fans at all.
With great aspects from locations and change on weather conditions especially on desert, this movie is considerably interesting, even though most of them are CGI; animals from desert, the OSTRICHS, the COBRA SNAKES and ARMORED HORSES even though it's not appropriate with its history.
Sands of Time as a production had great potential of usage in props, but either the producers never made a deep research or may be they just couldn't provide them. In the computer game, the props were the heart of the franchise. FLYING CARPET, DOUBLE-SIDED ALTER-EGO CREATOR MIRROR, POTHOLE AMBUSHES, BARRED DOORS, ROTTEN PUNK FLOORS, ELIXIRS...(for the full list props from the game, please go to the Message Board to find my message, in the title page). Here in the film, a large barred door been used, but it was a pre-built one with very well-known studio usage from 1980s' RED SONJA especially. Other cons were the SACRED DAGGER which given its name to the title of the movie, the POISONED KING DALMATIC. Other than those the costumes of the actors were only average. But the Princess needed a better costume other than a gown.
I found the editing job in the introduction scenes and the first half very pathetic. It became a matter of story design afterwards. There are bunches of continuation mistakes, costume changes without the location changes and errors in every other scene while telling the drama sequences. I'm crazy for sword combats in action movies, but Sands of Time displayed one of the worst sword combats I've ever seen, Jake needed to practise more on handling swords. In this case, even the Pirates of the Caribbean was so-so. If it's the matter the best sword combat was used in Star Wars 30 years ago. As a reminder, the first 3 games until 1999, Prince of Persia was full of excitement with its excellent sword combat simulations. Instead of sword combat, we witness the agility skills of our Prince, making the guardians run after him, jumping back and forth over the house roofs. If you're using agility skills to display in such a Swashbuckler; then what's Spider-Man, X-Men, BatMan for? For the cuts and takes from the action scenes, which is hard to say "combat", director Mike Newell has preferred mostly C.U. shots, that's dated back to John Woo, which is underclass nowadays. So as an action genre, Sands of Time fails almost every aspect. But there is one thing, I most fond of is the Hassansin soldiers and their combat weapons, and the successful sound effects comes with them.
The story design is pathetic, but we feel a nice development work on the story-telling. There is not many heritages from Persian Mythology, so it's fine and dandy to draw the long bow, but why is it always TIME-TRAVEL, isn't there anything else for the Mythological Gods to represent their power on Earth? After the first half, when the exact idea of who is on evil side, who is on good side is established, and when it's their time to challenge each other; it becomes breath-taking to watch and admire the Sands of Time.
Story: 3/10 , Story Development: 9/10, Production Design: 2/10, Sounds: 7/10, Effects: 7/10, Acting: 5/10, Script: 3/10, Visuals: 7/10, Action: 5/10, Adventure: 7/10, Fantasy and Creativity: 4/10.
Overall my mark is 6.5/10. Time is never wasted if it's for fun while watching Sands of Time