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Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Our rating: Your rating: 1 2 3 4 Your Comments: see all MPAA rating: PG-13 (for intense sequences of violence and action) Genre: Action, Adventure Theater release: May 28, 2010 by Walt Disney Pictures Directed by: Mike Newell Runtime: 1 hour 56 minutes Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal (Dastan), Gemma Arterton (Tamina), Ben Kingsley (Nizam), Alfred Molina (Sheik Amar), Richard Coyle (Tus), Toby Kebbell (Garsiv), Steve Toussaint (Seso), Ronald Pickup (King Sharaman) Related: Talk About It/Family Corner

With the second half of the film's title, it's obvious that Walt Disney Pictures would love for Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time to kick off a new action-packed franchise. Reteaming again with producer Jerry Bruckheimer, they're clearly positioning this as the next Pirates of the Caribbean. And since it's inspired by a popular video game series dating back to 1989, the hope is that Prince of Persia has a strong built-in audience.

But that's all marketing rhetoric. I'd love to say POP:SOT is the first truly successful movie adaptation of a video game (at least it's better than most attempts) or that it's true to the source material (though faithful in spirit, the plot details are different), but who cares? Does any of that ultimately matter if the results yield another mediocre and forgettable summer blockbuster?

Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Dastan, the prince in the title, and there lies one key problem. With all-American boy-next-door good looks and a put-on British accent, Gyllenhall looks about as Persian as Canadian teen-pop star Justin Bieber (or as Siamese as Yul Brynner in The King and I, or as Mongolian as John Wayne in The Conqueror). The story takes place within the heart of The Persian Empire during the height of its reign hundreds of years before Christ's birth—not exactly an ideal time for Persian-European relations. Gyllenhaal isn't the only casting oddity, though at least some of the other British actors are passably Middle Eastern.

Jake Gyllenhaal as Dastan

Still, the main problem isn't whitewashing, but believability. Everything seems staged rather than recreated; it feels more like another sword-clanging fantasy in Middle Earth than an adventure in the Middle East.

Dastan, a street urchin, is adopted by King Sharaman because he shows "great courage" standing up to guards who threaten one of his orphan friends. He leaps across rooftops like a monkey before he is caught, pardoned, and ultimately raised as royalty with the King's sons Tus (Richard Coyle) and Garsiv (Toby Kebbell).

Fifteen years later, the three brothers are off to war with their uncle Nizam (Ben Kingsley) as their military advisor, who suggests they attack the holy and peaceful city of Alamut for suspicion of forging weapons for enemies of Persia (WMDs, anyone?). The brothers reluctantly agree, despite Dastan's misgivings, capturing the city along with its beautiful Princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton, Clash of the Titans).

After single-handedly infiltrating the city, Dastan uncovers a strange (plastic-looking) dagger with magic sand inside its handle, allowing whoever wields it to rewind time by a minute and change events—it's basically a "save game" device. Soon, King Sharaman is killed and Dastan is framed for the murder. He flees with Tamina, who turns out to be the sworn sacred protector of the magic sand, and the two forge the usual squabbling romantic-comedy bond while trying to uncover the villain responsible for Sharaman's death and to thwart a plot to use the sands of time for evil.

Gemma Arterton as Princess Tamina

POP:SOT aims for a swashbuckling Arabian Nights-styled adventure with feats of derring-do, but it never provides enough thrill to set it apart from so many other CGI-fueled fantasies over the last decade. Given the agility of the Prince from the game—leaping the rooftops, diving off ledges, and climbing up walls—you would think the movie would be filled with breathtaking parkour ("free running") action sequences similar to the chase from the beginning of Casino Royale or the French film District 13. Instead we have lots of slow-motion leaping that often suggests the use of wire work and quick-cut editing. As far as the swordfights, they're not impossible to follow, but they tend to be shot close-up with lots of noise and little attention to technique.

This is another one of those films that relies more on effects than good stunt work. When Dastan makes the game's trademark dive near the start of the film, there's no sense of dizzying vertigo or danger to the event—he looks like a guy standing on a platform with computer-generated special effects in the background. For that matter, the nasty looking snakes used by the villain's "Hassansin" henchmen are all computer-generated. Even the fire looks fake in a couple battle sequences. Topping it all off is one of those big effects-heavy finales that's heavy on magical swirls of fire and sand where the hero doesn't seem to know what's going on—and neither do we.

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