Prince of Persia – A Review

By Connie Nguyen, Staff Writer

The video game movie curse. It’s as inevitable as taxes. The latest victim? Disney’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. This action adventure movie centers around Dastan, the orphan turned prince, and his destiny to restore the sacred time dagger to its temple. One would assume that combining a Disney budget with Bruckheimer’s producing and Gyllenhaal’s acting would result in something spectacular. Instead, the movie proved to be a mediocre mess.

The most disappointing component of the movie was the storyline. The movie began with an opening scene that was eerily similar to that of Aladdin. In fact, the only thing missing was an adorable little vest-wearing monkey. Opening scene aside, the rest of the movie proved to be incredibly predictable, from the unmasking of the villain to the happy ending. At some points, I actually caught myself cringing over the predictable storyline.

What the movie lacked in plot, it made up for with character development. Unlike most other video game movies who chose to focus on the graphics, Prince of Persia did a decent job developing the characters of the story via a good background story and character conflicts. Ironically, the most entertaining character was Sheik Amar, a tax-hating supporting character who ended up stealing the spotlight in every scene he was included. Other the positive notes about the movie were its elaborate set designs and action scenes.

Though the movie was fun and entertaining to watch, it was an overall flop thanks to its underwhelming and cheesy scenes in addition to the poor plot line. If you’re looking to kill time, try Prince of Persia, but don’t expect it to be anything other than a waste of time.

Rating: 2/5