Not too good, neither too bad!

Rating: 5/10 (28 May 2010)

Prince of Persia – Sands of Time Not being too big a fan of the newer Prince on Persia games, I went into watching this movie with a pretty neutral frame of mind. But having played the old school version of Prince of Persia, I had a feeling of familiarity while watching this. But let me just tell you, there's not too much common with that old version of the game and the movie.
This film is about this boy Dastan(Jake Gyllenhaal) from the streets, who is picked up by the king of Persia(King Sharaman – played by Ronald Pickup), for showing heroics and courage during one of the king's rides through the village. His men are about to kill the poor boy when the King realizes that the little kid has potential and goodness in him, so he decides to adopt him and commands his second-in-chief, Nizam(Ben Kingsley) to take the boy with them to the palace. There he grows up to be a good courageous prince along with his two brothers, who are the real sons of the King.
Jump to the present, Nizam convinces the King that the Persian army should conquer the city of Alamut because he has reason to believe that it was producing WMD's. So after conquering the peaceful city of Alamut, Dastan is falsely accused of killing his father but miraculously escapes with the beautiful princess(Princess Tamina – played by Gemma Arterton) of Alamut. He discovers that Alamut was indeed a peace loving city and that there was a plot to steal the 'dagger' which could take one back in time, which also looks like a WMD. To save the world from destruction and to clear his name as well, he goes on an adventure with princess Tamina all across Persia where he meets Sheik Amar(Alfred Molina), a conman and a funny touch to the movie who races ostriches and hates the government because he thinks they charge useless taxes.
This movie is a decent one time watch, nothing great, not too bad either. It hasn't got any memorable action sequences, most of them look a little fake and way too computerized. And specially after James Cameron's Avatar, a lot of the special effects are gonna look fake, unless they are done in the same way as Avatar's.
A decent pop corn flick, not too much substance, average acting, poor effects but bearable.
Even if you don't watch it, you're not missing anything great.
5/10