|
 Sand
plus sweat plus long hair plus Jake Gyllenhaal minus a shirt equals good
times. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a movie that does more
for the ladies in the audience than its weekend competition, Sex and the
City 2, ever will. The toned and muscular Gyllenhaal leaping and
bounding across exotic locales, performing impossible feats of
derring-do like a great-grandson of Douglas Fairbanks or Errol Flynn, is
the stuff that brought those stars of the past into the popularity they
held for years. The swashbuckling moments here, amped up to the modern,
high-speed action standards that today’s moviegoers demand make Prince
of Persia: The Sands of Time a perfectly entertaining way to spend
twelve dollars.
Young
Dastan has been honoured by his king. In an ancient land where all
curry royal favour with duplicity and dishonour, the sight of a young
orphan’s self-sacrificing rescue of a fellow street urchin profoundly
moves and impresses the monarch. Pursued by an irritated troop of
soldiers, the resourceful lad flips and hurtles over the rooftops of
Persia in his effort to flee (If a familiar tune from Disney's
Aladdin {1992} pops into your head during this scene -- “Prince Ali!
Fabulous he! Ali Ababwa” -- you’re not alone.). Instead of losing a
hand for his trouble, the little boy is raised up on royal shoulders,
adopted by the king himself for his bravery and good character. Years
later, the former guttersnipe spends most of his days carousing and
getting into trouble with the same loyal pals who knew him when he was a
nobody. Never expected to ascend the throne -- an honour reserved for
the king’s two natural sons -- and despite the recklessness with which
he habitually throws himself into battle, Dastan’s experience surviving
on the streets makes him a trusted counselor to his adopted older bro.
After Dastan and his ragtag group ensure victory for his brother’s
invasion of a holy city, a few of the spoils of that short war,
including a strange, elegant dagger and the princess it belongs to,
unsettle Dastan’s life in a way that instant, endless wealth could not.
Falsely accused of a horrible crime, Dastan drags his one
hostage/guide, the princess Tamina, all over the desert looking for a
way to clear his name. Tamina, on the other hand, only wants back the
dull blade that Dastan claimed for his own and will lie, cheat and steal
to get it. What is the secret behind the strange knife and why are
people willing to murder to own it?
Slight
of plot, but thick on video game style; Prince of Persia: The Sands of
Time employs many influences for its freewheeling action. To affect the
Prince of Persia’s virtually gravity-free VG environment, gymnastics,
Parkour, and good old Hong Kong wire-fu is widely used throughout the
film. While you can see the stuntman from time to time on some of the
more obviously impossible stunts, Gyllenhaal handles all the running,
jumping and climbing trees (or walls, or whatever obstacle is before
him) deftly and believably. The young actor known for deep,
dramatic turns in films like 2005’s Brokeback Cowboy and last year’s
Brothers, makes a nice salvo into the shallow pool of new action stars.
While much of what we see in Prince of Persia is CGI, Gyllenhaal’s
chiseled and muscular physique, devoid of an ounce of fat, is further
proof of the actor’s serious intentions toward the role, which could
pass for a postmodern Sinbad. Besides Gyllenhaal’s strenuous workout
demands, there is the combination of floppy hair, puppy dog eyes and
self-effacing charm that breathes life into his literally
one-dimensional Dastan. Much of the movie is likeable because
Gyllenhaal is.
Bear
in mind that this is a Jerry Bruckheimer production, so the emphasis, as
ever, is on the boom and crash, not character development. The film
starts off rousingly, with director Mike Newell’s swooping perspective
on the breakneck action making it feel as if we’re actually guiding
Dastan through the first of many rigourous chases around, over and under
the kingdom with a gamepad controller. In the hand-to-hand ( and
sword to sword) battle scenes, Newell actually finds a balance
between the close-up camera angles so badly done in Western action films
and holding the camera still to show the actors and fight choreographer
doing their thing. The brisk momentum peters out a bit by the third act
and actually begins to feel a bit repetitious. This is movie that drags
to a dull thud as soon as someone starts talking, but Newell is smart
enough to inject an unexpected bit of offhand British humour delivered
by folks like Alfred Molina as a mercenary who hates taxes but really
loves ostriches. Ben Kingsley is also here and I don’t mean to spoil
anything, but he’s the bad guy. I hope you can recover from the shock.
As Tamina, the princess meant to protect the mysterious dagger and
Dastan’s purported love interest, Gemma Arteton runs the gamut from flat
to shrill in one easy step. Mostly she’s there to live up to the
character’s reputation as an incomparable beauty, which would probably
be more convincing if her spray-on skin tone would stay consistent.
Most of the time the tanfaced actors look like they fought their way out
of the bottom of a bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos with varying degrees of
success and streakiness. I daresay the makeup department might’ve had
an easier time of things had there actually been people from that region
in the cast. But I quibble; the action’s the thing, and it better be
because trying to follow the nonsensical meant-for-gamers-only storyline
about time manipulation will only give you a headache.
There’s something joyously B-movie about Prince of Persia: The Sands of
Time. It’s not afraid to be what it is; an old video game someone
thought would make a fun movie, and that person was occasionally right.
The swashbuckling action and pretty CGI will entertain anyone looking
for a quick 90 minutes of escapism. It won’t change anyone’s life and
will slip from your memory the moment you’ve left the theatre like sand
through an hourglass (- or dagger). Still, Prince of Persia: The
Sands of Time is a rare thing lately in that it’s an action film the
whole family can enjoy.
~ The
Lady Miz Diva
May 28th,
2010
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