Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time Film Review

Making video games into films is one that's had a very rocky road as even just a few short years ago it was expected that they would be bad and yet now there expected to be good. With the film that i'm going to be reviewing for you all today not only being one of the bad video game movies out but is also one that's really largely been forgotten about despite the fact that it was made and released by Disney and so then join me as I review the film that let's be honest here alot of us forgot was even a thing in the first place with the film in question being called simply just "Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time" enjoy.

The plot of the film is when he's framed for the murder of his father the king of persia his son Dastan must team up with a princess from another kingdom to help to stop a plot to take the throne. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad with this films plot being one that is nothing more then the stereotypical action film plot and really nothing more then that and while this could be seen as being a good thing as the plot to the game that this film is based off of didn't have much in the way plot in the first place it is also largely a bad thing as all it does is make this film blend in with all of the other action films out there when this is the kind of film that could have benefitted from standing out as that would make the plot be all the more memorable then what it actually is as there's nothing in this film from a plot standpoint that makes it feel like it's own unique thing with the film itself feeling alot more like a live action version pf Aladdin then Disney's own live action remake of Aladdin as from a plot point of view the films are strikingly similar but tho this films plot is one that also isn't that strong and instead feels like it would have been better served as the plot for a nineties live action action TV show and not something that you'd expect to be the plot of a film as it's just not that strong enough to support an entire feature length film in it's own right with the film plot of this film also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Starring in this film is Jake Gyllenhaal as Prince Dastan and St Trinian's star Gemma Arterton as Princess Tamina. Also starring in this film is Toby Kebbell as Prince Garsiv , Alfred Molina as Sheik Amar , Richard Coyle as Prince Tus , Ronald Pickup as King Sharaman , Reece Ritchie as Bis , Steve Toussaint as Seso , Darwin Shaw as Asoka and Thunderbirds and Iron Man 3 star Sir Ben Kingsley as Prince Nizam.

Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. However this films acting isn't all that good which is something that is kind of shocking as these are actors that usually can deliver some really good performances in anything that there in and yet here in this film they all feel oddly miscast like the either director or Disney themselves were just banking on the star power of their names and therefor chose not to focus that much on the actors acting ability with it being made clear as day that this films director Mike Newell wasn't giving his actors clear enough direction as we know that he can get good performances out of his actors as all you need to do is look at Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire as proof of that and yet here it just seems like he was doing the bare minimum just to get  pay check and it is something that does shine through in the films acting as while Sir Ben Kingsley is quite easily the best actor in the film that's more due to the fact that he's a really good actor in his own right and it had nothing to do with the quality of this film with the thing that could have saved this film from an acting point of view being if the makers of this film chose to actually try and get really good performances out of all of this films actors and not just leave them stranded and really unsure of themselves with the acting that's in this film not really being helped by the fact that the script for this film is just so bad as it gives none of this films actors absolutely nothing to work with interms of what it is that there actual characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does help to hurt the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.

Doing the CGI for this film is Double Negative , Moving Picture Company , Framestore , Cinesite , Peerless Camera Company , Bain VFX , Mobius MC and NVIZ. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty the best part of this film as while this films effects aren't that bad there alot more better then alot of things in this film and therefor come across as being alot more better because of how bad alot of this film is in the first place but in saying that tho the film does make alot of use of really obvious CGI from CGI backgrounds to CGI animals and alot of it is to be frank here a very mixed bag of affairs as while the films CGI backgrounds look horrendously bad the films CGI animals actually look pretty god even for the time in which they were made with the film oddly enough choosing to use more practical effects then CGI ones which is something that does help to make the effects in this film blend in all the more with what was actually there on the day with the film only really using CGI as and when it needs to which is a great way to use CGI as many film makers use it as a crutch when making a film when it is in fact a tool that is to be used to enhance the experience of the film itself and that is something that this film did seem to understand as CGI was only manly used on the titular Sands Of Time and that's really it and that's a great way to use CGI as CGI should only be used to do what couldn't be done on the day and you can't have some one time travelling for real so it has to be done inside of a computer. 

Disney in more recent has been trying and failing to create strong female characters and it could be argued that Princess Tamina is another failed attempt at that idea. As while she's not as bad as say Captain Marvel or the live action remake of Snow White there's not really all that much to her as a character outside of the fact that she's a princess and is Dastans love interest who happens to know quite alot about the The Sands Of Time and that's really it and while granted the film needed a character that has all of the information abut this device in order to explain it all way to the audience that still doesn't mean that they had to make that her sole character as there's nothing more to her character that makes her stand out and that makes her interesting in the first place as she has no character flaws that she has to over come and therefor when she does take part in an action scene we the audience are left wondering on if this is meant to be true to her character with us even not really feeling anything when she does sacrifice herself at the end of the film as the makers of this film didn't really give us a reason to fully care about her character in the first place where as if the makers of this film did go out of there way to make this interesting character that we want to know about then it would have gone along way into making her the strong female character that the film so desperately wants us to think that she is and while granted Disney was more subtle with her character then they were with alot of there more recent attempts at creating a strong female character it's clear as day even in this film that they had no idea on how to create one as they don't give Tamina flaws to overcome as that is something that really does help to make character regardless of there gender stronger characters in the first place as it then gives them a journey to go on and room to grow and that's something that Tamina just doesn't do not due to the fact that she's written as this perfect character but rather it's due to the fact that she's just not written all that well as a character in the first place.

With not only her character but also Dastans character not really being helped by the fact that they forced into a romance together. Which is something that just feels out of place in this film as while yes it's not uncommon for male and female action movie characters to fall in love with each other it's also something that needs to feel true to there characters and be something that's right for the film as well and that's something that's just not the case for this film as the film could have had the two character remain as friends or maybe even close friends and the events of the film would still play out the exact same way with there romance in the film instead feeling like a poor attempt to get young girls in to watch the film which is something that makes no sense as if you wanted to get them into the film inn the first place all they would have to have done is made the film actually good in the first place and that's really it with this not really being helped by the fact that both Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arterton don't really have any kind of romantic chemistry together with it feeling like that they just met each other the day before they started filming on the film when if they really wanted to have a romance angle in this film then they should have hired actors that do share romantic chemistry together as that is something that would have helped to make there romance in the film feel all the more believable in the first place and yet by not doing any of that we are stuck with a pointless romance angle that goes nowhere as they don't even end up together at the the end of the film with actors that are more believable as friends then they are as boyfriend and girlfriend.

To give this film at the very least some small amount of credit it is alot more memorable then the 2016 Assassin's Creed movie. With alot of that being due to the fact that Sir Ben Kingsley does make for a good villain something which he also proved in both Thunderbirds and yes even Iron Man 3 as he was technically the villain of that film for alot of it's running time and here he does bring the same amount of menace that he brought to both The Hood and Trevor Slattery as while Trevor was ultimately a more comedic character when he was in character as The Mandarin he was rather threatening and the same thing is true for his character as while in this film all his character Nizam wants to be king and while that is a plan that Disney themselves did better in The Lion King what made him threatening in this film was seeing just how far that he was willing to go in order to achieve that goal as he was willing to not only kill his own brother but his nephews as well and when that failed he was willing to destroy the earth just for a chance to become king which is actually a pretty threatening to do with the only thing that lets the character down is the fact that not only can you see the reveal of him being the main guy coming a mile away but he's also not even in the film all that much both before and after that big reveal and so the big reveal itself looses all impact and the character himself doesn't get the chance to be all that threatening and smart as he really should have been with even the character getting a pretty weak death scene when this is a character who's death should have been seen even if it was revealed to be fake out before he gets arrested by the guards once Dastan travels back to the past to warn them all about him and kills rather easily.

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and fifty five minuets and fifty three seconds. Which is a pretty solid running time for this film to have as even tho it is a pretty generic action film it still did need alot of that running time in order to do it's plot justice with the film even having just about the right amount of plot there to really cover that amount of running time in the first place and yet tho this film really doesn't use it's running time all that wisely either as the plot of the film isn't that well developed with the elements of not only The Sands Of Time game but also it's sequels Warrior Within and The Two Thrones being confusing for none fans of the games such as myself and yet the fact the film pretty much creates an original story being something that would make the die hard fans of the game angry even more so then the makers of this film don't incorporate elements from the games in ways that feel natural to the plot with it feeling like the film actively stops the plot of the film to show of the game elements where as that screen time would have been better spent in developing the films plot and not trying to cater to two very different sets of audiences as all that does is leave with a plot that's not as well thought out and developed as it really could have been and while this doesn't really effect the characters all that much it really effects them enough to the point where you start really to notice that the characters just aren't working as while Nazim is fine as a character and Dastan and Tamina are passable it's the films side characters that really do suffer as none of them get the time that they needed to be well thought out this is despite the fact that alot of them are key to the plot of the film but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.

So now then as this is an actin film that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. With it being made clear right from the get go that the makers of this film put alot more effort in to the films many action scenes then they do the films plot or characters as it's in the films action scenes that the film gets to actually become watchable and entertaining with Dastan getting the chance to show us just what he can do in a fight alot of the time but at the same time tho the film does have alot of action scenes so many infact that the film barely gives us the audience a chance to catch out breaths before the next one starts which is something that does make the films action feel a bit of chore to sit through so much so that it does make it hard to say just which one is the films best action scene as there's so much going on so much so that it does become hard to keep up with what's going on alot of the time in this films action but when this film does give us something cool in an action scene it really does stand out like the fact that Dastan and Garsiv do have a pretty good sword fight but that's really the only cool thing that we get from an action point of view with the makers of this film using slow motion alot of the time so much so that it feels like it was only being used to pad the film out and not to show off something that's actually cool going on but when the film does do something good from an action point of view it really does get it right in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. 

Overall this film as bad is it feels like a better live action remake of Aladdin then what Disney's actually live action remake of Aladdin was with this film being one that much like the 2016 Assassin's Creed film is one that's best left forgotten due to how mediocre that this film really is in the first place in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 5 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Prince Of Persia fandom wiki page , the official Disney fandom wiki page and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images really from this very film being the really great Google Images this is really because of the fact that really all of the images that I really indeed got and really used from Google Images are all really high quality really with all of the images that really are all and of course really currently up and on the really great and the really solid Google Images really are all being really fairly high in quality and as well as them all really being fairly high in definition.