Prince of Persia the Sands of Time 2010

I just realized I've never reviewed Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time 2010. Without spoilers I can say that it was an entertaining movie for casual viewing. You won't be bored, but you won't be awed either.

SPOILERS AHEAD

World-Building: Decent enough to move the story along, shoddy in terms of accuracy
Characterization: Decent
Plot: Decent

The ratings make it sound more boring than it is. This movie had one thing going for it: the excellent parkour scenes with the main character Dastan leaping and flipping around on the rooftops. Those were the highlight of the movie. The Plot and characterization were almost there, it felt as if good groundwork had been laid for interesting characters and situations to develop from, but then no one had bothered to actually do the work and develop those characters and situations. So it felt a bit thin at times, but as I said, the roof-jumping saved it.

I'm not familiar with the video game on which this movie was based, but I liked the slow-motion effects they used in some of the chase/fight scenes to give it a video-game feel. The scenes with the dagger coming into action also had a video game feel to them that I liked. So this movie was great to look at, but it had it's problems.

The plot was decent enough and didn't reach the point of being boring, but it often felt a bit ridiculous that the characters and the dagger were being thrown on yet another long detour. Also, it often felt as if their motivations hadn't been thought out properly. Yes, they need to get to that random temple on the mountainside because it's where the next action sequence takes place, but please spend some time convincing me that they actually decided to go there for a good reason. A couple of lines of dialogue from a woman he hated up to this point shouldn't be enough to convince the hero he should destroy this magical time-traveling dagger he's just stumbled across. I mean seriously. The man has just lost his father, his best friend, and has been betrayed by his uncle and is misunderstood by his brothers. You'd think it would cross his mind to do the reckless thing and actually use the dagger...

If you don't think too much about their motivations, however, you can enjoy the characters' journey for what it is - an exciting almost two hour journey where the good main character is trying to prove his own innocence.

Now, we come to the reason I gave this movie such a low world-building rating. It was visually stunning. The world was internally consistent and didn't really seem to break it's own rules. That is, until you know something - anything - about Persia, that's where it falls apart. Whoever did the world-building for the video game and film must have known absolutely nothing about the supposed setting - and they must also have been deprived of wikipedia. In no particular order here's a list of the movie's factual errors:

1) It's supposed to take place at the height of the Persian Empire which took place before Islam but all the visuals, architecture, clothing, and so forth place it very clearly after the spread of Islam. And you can't just assume they're talking about an Islamic time period because the movie keeps referring to "the gods" and so forth.

2) Persians don't speak Arabic and they certainly didn't back when this story was supposed to take place. They have their own language. It's called Persian/Farsi. How difficult would it have been to find some Iranian extras for the soldiers/citizens who keep shouting Arabic exclamations so they could use actual Persian words instead?

3) Persia is not just a bunch of sand dunes and it certainly wasn't at the height of it's empire when it stretched, as the intro tells us from the steppes of China to the shores of the Mediterranean. There are mountains. And Forests. There are sea ports. You get the idea.

4) The City of Alamut (which shouldn't have existed yet when this story was supposed to be set) is a castle that stands atop a very high mountain, not a little city in the middle of a big valley as it appeared in the movie. Also the idea of invading this place overnight with a bunch of soldiers on horses is laughable - no matter how stupid Dastan's brothers were they wouldn't have been stupid enough to consider it.

5) See point 1 above. They can't seem to decide when this takes place and what the predominant religion is. Sometimes we have characters talking about "the gods" and sometimes it's one God.

6) Anachronisms - "camel riding illiterates" and other such lines. Princess Tamina said this as an insult, but back then camels were pretty much the most luxurious form of travel available and she would have been as likely to ride one as anyone else. Actually, most of their dialogue, especially the stupid "I hate you, but secretly find you attractive" banter is ridiculously anachronistic.

7) They couldn't be bothered to find an actual Persian actor to play the lead role. Now, this is Hollywood, so it wasn't as if anyone was expecting the lead to be an actual Persian, but they could have at least had some Persian supporting characters or extras. Anyone, really. (Yes, I know famous British actor Ben Kingsley's father was Indian and many Persian people look white, but those are not excuses for not casting a single Persian actor in a movie about Persia!)

Like I said, it's an enjoyable movie for casual viewing, but it has it's problems and could have used a bit more effort in the development of characters, plot and research. Watch it, but don't expect too much.