Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Prince of Persia is another movie based on a video game. The story opens with some background on the ruler of the Persian Kingdom and his family. He has a loyal brother, two natural born sons, and a third son adopted in a bazar just before his hand could be lopped off. Our hero is this adopted son, Dastan. Fast forward to the present and we find the three brothers and their uncle debating whether to sack the holy city of Alamut. Uncle Nizam (Ben Kingsley) provides damning evidence that Alamut is aiding the enemies of Persia and the decision is made to attack.

Meanwhile, Princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton), who appears to be ruler and high priestess of Alamut, entrusts a sacred dagger to be spirited from the city. As chance would have it, the rider encounters Dastan (Jake Gylenhaal) and loses the dagger in the ensuing fight. No sooner has the city been secured and Tamina been slated to marry Dastan's eldest brother, Tus, than all goes amiss. The Emperor is killed by a holy robe that Dastan had offered him as a gift. All eyes fall on Dastan and he runs for his life, enlisting Tamina to get him out of the city.

While Dastan wants to prove his innocence, Tamina wants to recover the dagger. So, they are wary allies. Having escaped into the desert, Tamina makes her move to recover the dagger but Dastan, by pure chance, activates its power. The dagger allows one to travel up to a minute back in time. It is fueled by the magic sand that is held in the hilt. Once the sand is gone, it is just an ornate dagger.

The action is over the top. At one point, Dastan finds himself on collapsing ruins inundated with sand. He leaps and tumbles from one crumbling ruin to the next with some of the most outlandish acrobatics. The villain has hired a gang of assassins (before assassin existed, at least by that name) who use a variety of unlikely weapons, the most noteworthy being the razor whip and the flinging finger darts. Dastan managed to get the assistance of Sheik Amar (Alfred Molina) - a sort of king of thieves - and Seso, his Ngbaka muscle.

Now, for the inexplicable. So, the villain finally gets his hands on the dagger. What does he do with it? Why, he sets it on a decorative pedestal in a remote tower of Alamut and assigns one of the surviving assassins to protect it. See, he's busy digging for the source of the magic sand and can't be encumbered with this dagger. It should come as no surprise that our heroes recover the dagger.

It isn't great but it is entertaining while it lasts.

Clash of the Titans

The remake of the campy sword and sandals epic of 30 years ago is grimmer and grittier but not really better. Men have declared war on the gods (they discover the foolishness of such when one god makes a brief visit and lays waste) and Perseus, son of Zeus, is thrust to the forefront. He is a reluctant hero who despises the gods and, though gifts come to him from the gods, he refuses to use them. Where Harry Hamlin eagerly collected a magic sword, shield, helmet, and owl, Sam Worthington refuses to use such items on principle. Certainly makes for a very different Perseus. As in the original, Perseus must find a way to slay the kraken to save Andromeda. He is accompanied by soldiers of Argos, led by Draco (Mads Mikkelsen). In the original, the soldiers are just fodder to die along the way. This is largely true here too but these characters are developed so as to be more than the random red shirt.

The gods are generally reduced to Zeus and Hades. Sure, others make cameos but are mostly irrelevant. Liam Neeson, surely getting used to playing god (he's Aslan in Narnia), is Zeus. Likewise, Ralph Fiennes must be getting used to villainy (he is also Lord Voldimort), as he is Hades. Whereas Lawrence Oliver played Zeus as cranky and domineering, wearing a white himation (Greek Toga), Neeson is Good Cop to Fiennes Bad Cop and wears shining armor that puts Excalibur (1981) to shame.

Again, in keeping with the original, mythology is modified to better the story. Io (Gemma Arterton), a noted liaison of Zeus, has watched over Perseus from afar. She is cursed to not age because she refused a god's advances. I found myself thinking she was just a goddess in disguise since her wardrobe changed without apparent cause and she gave Perseus a good fight when she chose, appeared out of nowhere when needed, and also somehow 'guided' him as a baby to his rescue though I didn't see her swimming alongside. But no, she was just Io. Nix all that stuff about being turned into a cow and bearing a son to Zeus.

In order for the movie to have some multiculturalism, the Jinn are introduced. Most would think of the jinn as a Genie, though this jinn looks more like an evil wood-carving. As the Jinn didn't speak Greek (English), it couldn't really develop as a character. The inclusion is mostly annoying and its ability to self-destruct was plain bizarre. However, I did like that jinn rode giant scorpions, complete with pavilions.

If you thought the Kraken was big in the last movie, you haven't seen anything. This thing is immense. In fact, its approach should have flooded the city of Argos. When its stony corpse toppled into the sea, a tidal wave should have swept over the city. Devouring Andromeda would have been about as filling as eating one kernel of corn. Of note, the Kraken has gone from being a creature of Poseidon to being a child of Hades. In fact, the story states that the Kraken is so powerful that it overthrew the Titans who ruled before the current gods. Hmm. But Hades got the short straw and was banished to the underworld? Something doesn't add up.

Calibos (Jason Flemyng), the villain of the 1981 version, is here a pawn of Hades. It was he who tossed Perseus and his mother into the sea to kill them and learns he was only half-successful. Hades imbues Calibos with some divine breath (black, smoky, evil breath) to make him a challenge for the demigod Perseus. He's okay but he lacks the tragic love for Andromeda that gave the original some character.

All in all, it is an entertaining film with flashy action and epic battles but it rates no more than mindless popcorn fun.