Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is one of the stronger video game adaptations, although that's not saying much.

Rating: 6/10 (27 February 2018)

Nearly every production studio has made an attempt at making a decent video game adaptation. There are some good iterations but the dreaded curse has unfortunately yet to be broken. Based on the Prince of Persia franchise, we follow Prince Dastan who is framed for killing the king. He soon stumbles across a jewelled dagger that has the power to turn back time, and must ensure it does not fall into the hands of someone who has a more insidious agenda. This is just old fashioned fun. Harking back to classic adventure movies like Indiana Jones. If you dust off your sandy serious mind and just observe what's on screen, you'll enjoy it. Start analysing it...and well you'll find issues. Straight away, you feel energised by the light adventurous tone that Disney set out to accomplish. Several action set pieces to keep the eyes engaged, but upon reflection it's not really memorable. They all merge into one. Performances were all solid. Gyllenhaal tackles his first above average blockbuster (*cough* The Day After Tomorrow is below average), I did find his accent confusing. Was he trying to be British? I spent half the time deciphering in my head what his accent was meant to be. Arterton surprisingly held her own and occasionally portrayed a strong independent character. Kingsley...well, I don't think big flashy blockbusters are right for him. The visual effects still look impressive, particularly the scenes involving time reversal. The sandy after effects suited and enhanced these scenes. The script tries to embed humour, but fails. It's so focussed on the word "time" and explaining the rules of the dagger that it just doesn't have enough space for the world building which is fundamentally important in an adventure story. I despise the ending. It negates everything that happened (I understand why) but all the relationships that are established and deaths were just meaningless, making the story forgettable. Tries too hard at creating a franchise.