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For the most part, films based on video games have not been that successful. For every Resident Evil there are a ton of Super Mario Brothers. While it seems that the two different formats could co-exist and generate many crossovers, most have been a disappointment at the box office. Trying to change that is the giant extravaganza Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

Since I have never played the video game, I have no idea how close the story of the game is to the story of the movie. The film version takes place in the days of the Persian Empire. We start with King Sharaman (Ronald Pickup) having two sons, just as he has a royal brother, Nizam (Ben Kingsley). Years later, the king is traveling through a town and sees a confrontation between a street urchin and a palace guard. Impressed by the cunning and strength of the lad, the king proclaims that this young man will be considered a Prince of Persia, a royal but with no rights to the throne.

It is years later and that street kid is now Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal), a grown man working along side his adopted brothers in defending the Persian Empire. When Uncle Nizam brings proof that a Holy City they are passing by is supplying weapons to the enemy, the rightful prince decides not to wait for the king’s orders and lays siege to the city. Even though Dastan thinks it is the wrong strategy, he fights along side his brothers. Seeing a different way to attack, Dastan leads a small band of his men to a side gate. It the film’s biggest combination of live action and CGI – we get a battle royal, with daring jumps and waterfalls of fire. This scene is the highlight of the film. We also see the Princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton) who hides a dagger with one of her men. This is a holy relic that cannot get into the wrong hands. During the battle, Dastan gains possession of the dagger.

After the sacking of the city, the treachery begins. Dastan is given a holy cloak as a gift for his father, the king. The king arrives very upset at what has happened. He doesn’t believe that the people of the Holy City are smuggling weapons, mad for the rush to judgment by his sons. Dastan gives the king the cloak as a spoil of victory, and the king drops off, dead. The cloak was full of poison. Dastan is accused by both of his brothers in the death of the king. He escapes with the magic dagger and princess in tow.

Once away from the city, Dastan makes a discovery about the magic dagger. It contains ‘the sands of time’ – a mystical device that can turn back time for the holder of the weapon. Only the holder knows of the changes, so by knowing the past he can manipulate the future. This could be the ultimate weapon and spying device. He wants to take it to his uncle to prove his innocence, but the princess is sworn to protect both the dagger and the sands that make it work. The journey of Dastan and Tamina to prove him as an honest man, while all the evil turns around in a desert tornado of deceit, is the basic constructs of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

Jake Gyllenhaal looks as though he is trying to build a franchise character with Dastan. Though he looks great with all the action sequences, he also has this uncomfortable glint in his stare with the more flippant aspects of the character. It is as though he is uncertain about how to play a swashbuckling character in the vein of an Errol Flynn. One can be forgiving in him doing a stretch so far from his comfort zone, but with time he could become another action star.

As comic relief, Alfred Molina as Sheik Amar of the Valley of Slaves just steals every scene in he is in. He is a leader of the badlands making sure that everyone on the outside just leaves him along. His character is so anti-taxation that he could be a spokesman for the TEA Party. The ribald discontent he feels toward giving the government any of the gold he has stolen and swindled warms the deepest recesses of the heart. His timing is almost like a boxer, waiting for the right moment to hit his comedy lines with a solid punch. It is a winning performance.

The biggest find of the film is Gemma Arterton as the young princess. She has the moxie of a 1930’s damsel in distress with the flippant ‘I can do anything a man can do’ attitude in the vein of icons of Seventies Cinema–Carrie Fisher, Karen Allen and Margo Kidder. She carries the romance scenes that Jake looks uncomfortable doing, giving him a wide berth to find his footing. It is rumored that she is the new ‘it girl’ of Hollywood and is up for a multitude of parts. No one knows exactly what is true on the gossip mill of the Internet, but she just takes charge of her role in Prince of Persia.

The film feels more like a Saturday Matinee Serial from the early days of cinema, or something that RKO would have put out in their heydays. It has loads of adventure, with a sprinkling of romance along the way. While the middle did sag with the weight of all the espionage events, the complications are a part of the charm. Director Mike Newell hits most of the action buttons in Prince of Persia feeding the ‘ride’ aspect of a summer blockbuster. He steals from everybody in making this film, parts looking like Spider-man and other parts like The DaVinci Code. While not a perfect or unique vision, it does entertain.

As we were leaving the theater, I heard someone complain that the film didn’t have any Middle Eastern people in the lead roles and that it should have been done in the native language. This film is not a history but a fantasy, like the Jason and Sinbad flicks of the 1960’s. If someone is expecting a true depiction of life a few thousand years ago, this is not your movie. But if you are looking for some Old Hollywood style of swashbuckling, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a fun little distraction.

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