Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time – Blu-ray Review
The Film:
Behold! From the foul stenches of the forgotten genre of time, comes a rollicking fun Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, a modern CG-filled throwback to those silly Italian sword-and-sandal epics. A deceiving uncle; a man of destiny; a princess who is more than her looks; sword fights and across the desert adventures; yes, we’ve seen this all before, and better, but that doesn’t stop the enjoyment of Prince of Persia. It’s a film so keen on non-stop action, that it’s entertaining in just that regard. It’s brainless entertainment, a fun movie just like the promise of many on a hot summer day, that even in the chilly air conditioned theater, we rarely get. For that, we won’t mind the film’s flaws.
Don’t get too hyped up based on my early praise. The film is rather standard, following Bruckheimer’s own Pirates of the Caribbean films closely, and it all whizzes by in predictable fashion. But the first key to enjoying this film is getting by the non-Middle Eastern actors. Once you can buy the fact that you cannot have no-name Iranian actors as leads in a $150 million budgeted film, following a game Jake Gyllenhaal isn’t all that bad. True, this is the 6th Century in Persia (now Iran), but hey, the Persian King rescues a young, English boy who has a noble heart, so let’s roll with that. Once you do, the rest of the film is pound-for-pound pleasing as any other film of its ilk.
Throughout all of the big special effect sequences, the glue to the film is the fine cast Bruckheimer has rounded up, much like his own Pirates franchise, this is a team effort. Gyllenhaal is fine here; well-toned and lively, but he’s far better when he is verbally sparing with the increasing cute Gemma Arterton, as much of their banter is a greatly played. Of course, Sir Ben Kingsley is walking through this, but that doesn’t stop him from even phoning in a solid performance as the baddie. To the film’s delight, is Alfred Molina as the Sheik Amar. He’s hammy and over-the-top, but he gets the tone of the film and is having fun with it all, like the audience. Have I told you about…yes, you have Molina, but tell us again.
Don’t sweat it if you enjoy it all, even if the plot is loosely fitted together with all of that sword-and-sandal hokum. It’s a jazzed up version of those, as only mega-producer Jerry Bruckheimer can deliver in the summer months. It’s entertaining, yet somewhat easily dismissible. It’s everything some people love about popcorn movies and everything other people hate about popcorn movies. After you lick your fingers from the greasy popcorn, did you even consider that the film was adapted from a video game?
The Blu-ray:
Audio/Video: It’s Disney, it’s great. If you’ve been buying Blu-rays for a while now and have been following us along, you should know than Disney puts out a stellar HD transfer after another. Details are sharp and clear, colors are bold, and while it’s easy just to gloat about the transfer, oddly and it should be noted, there’s a soft yellowish hue permenating throughout the transfer which makes for some softness here and there in the darker scenes. Not a deal killer, but an odd element nonetheless.
Outside a minnor off-sync in one scene for a few minutes, the track is the typical loud, aggressive, active DTS track you’d expect from an action film. Overall, it’s not the best Disney has offered in their live-action films on Blu, but it’s still really good.
CineExplore: The Sands of Time: Running along with the feature film, this feature has little dagger pop-ups that when selected, will offer short making-of interviews and behind-the-scenes tidbits. It’s okay, but one wishes they would have just offered a shorter, thorough making-of.
Deleted Scene: Just one little deleted sequence featuring a slew a severed heads.
A slew of upcoming HD trailer for future Disney Blu-rays and DTV films. Also, on the second disc – which is the DVD version of the film – has a little featurette not on the Blu-ray. An Unseen World: Making Prince of Persia is pretty much a typical making-of that I’d recommend over the pop-up CineExplore extra. Oh, don’t forget the Digital Copy version of the film.
Conclusion: Decent fun and a solid Blu-ray offering, with minor little flaws.
The Film: Rating: 
The Blu-ray: Rating: 
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