Even though "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" was based on a video game, I had never played the series, not being one much for video games. However, when I saw who that Jake Gyllenhaal was playing Dastan (pronounced Destin) I figured it would be interesting to see him in a movie (let's admit, he didn't look half-bad in the movie, either. Very sexy and heroic).That's what happens a lot. People go to see a movie based on who's in it. Sometimes it turns out to be terrible, and sometimes, it turns out great.
"Prince of Persia" is one such movie that could have been awful but turned out quite well.
The king of Persia has two sons and one brother. However, it seems that his family is not yet complete, and when he is in the marketplace in one of his cities, he witnesses a courageous fatherless young boy, Dastan, a street rat who takes the punishment for one of his friends. Right before the soldiers chop off his hand, the king breaks in and declares that he is adopting the boy as his son. Why? Because the boy is extremely courageous...and because he would be a prince who did not have his eye on the Persian throne. And in that way a boy from the streets became a prince of Persia.
Fast forward fifteen years. Dastan is now preparing for battle and decides to stop a massacre. He gets in and the Persian people declare him the lion of Persia. He and his brothers take over the Holy City. Along the way he finds a dagger and a princess who is the guardian of the dagger- and the dagger happens to be the Dagger of Time, which can control time and take the person holding it back in time.
Dastan learns about the power only after his father is murdered. Dastan is framed for the murder and forced to flee with the princess (to whom his father has betrothed him) who wants nothing more than to slit his throat and steal the dagger back for its own protection. Dastan does not try to change the past and save his father with the dagger, for people can only go back in time one minute.
In fact, the viewers are led to believe Dastan thinks of nothing but clearing his name and finding the traitor, even when he discovers that if someone breaks the hourglass of time they can go back to any incident in their life they want and change the future - however, doing so will unleash the wrath of the gods.
When Dastan realizes who really betrayed him and his father, he realizes that that person wants to change time so that he can let the king die and he will be the king of Persia. That means that Dastan's brothers would never have been born - and Dastan would have been left to rot in the Persian streets.
So along with a crook who calls himself an entrepreneur and refuses to pay taxes, a knife-thrower with a conscious, a princess he's falling in love with, and a host of other characters, Dastan is determined to stop his uncle from changing the past, allowing his father to die as a young boy, and seizing the throne.
The plot did go a little hazy and get confusing, but by the end everything was explained.
The movie focuses on destiny and choice, a seemingly favorite topic as of late. Do we have the right to choose our future, or is it laid in stone? Dastan learns that it is all about the choices we make, as he faces some difficult ones, in addition to his destiny, which plays a part near the end. Others, like the princess, still believe in destiny and do whatever it takes to fulfill what they believe their destiny is.
Dastan is extremely noble - honor is everything to him, with his foil character being his uncle, who is power-hungry and greedy. Yet most of his uncle's problems come from feeling under-appreciated, something a lot of people can relate to, especially if they work at entry-level jobs or attend school. Under appreciation is the core for a lot of problems in society, according to research. Then again, most under appreciated people don't murder their entire family to gain a throne. There was a lot of that going on back then, so in that case it was well-researched.
Dastan's father and the princess reference praying and and being in the temple, and some characters take a jab at God and gods in general. However, it seems Dastan isn't afraid of the gods, and neither are his brothers, his companions, or his uncle. They put little stock in destiny or fate except when it relates to them, like with the uncle's desire to break something the gods supposedly gave to mankind. However, he seems to think less of the gods and people than himself. Dastan is wild but only kills people who are trying to kill him. He would probably be considered a delinquent in our society, one of those people that others look at and think, "He should be in prison." But when push comes to shove, Dastan is willing to sacrifice his life to save his brothers, his friends, his father, and his country from his evil uncle.
There weren't any raunchy sex scenes. There were some near-kiss scenes, some cleavage, some male-stomach skin, and a lot of jokes, but nothing bad was shown. There was a lot of violence and action scenes, but it made sense because the movie was loosely-based on the "Prince of Persia" videogame series.
I actually thoroughly enjoyed this movie. I'm going to go back and see it again in theaters, maybe three times, and when it comes out I'm going to buy it. It was that good. For being from Disney, the acting was great, even though it was obvious most of the action scenes were CGI. I think that was the point, even though it was slightly annoying.
Surprisingly, there are four characters who could be the title character: Dastan, Dastan's uncle Nizam, or Dastan's brothers, Garsiv and Tus. These four characters were all princes of Persia in the movie and played important roles. Whose story was this, Dastan's Garsiv's, Tus', or Nizam's? It had to be Dastan's story - he was the character to be admired, although his brothers showed their own strength and courage. Nizam was to be hated in this one, betraying Dastan and revealing his true feelings: he always believed that Dastan was nothing more than trash. He never understood why, in his own words, his brother "scraped" Dastan off the streets. He should never have been saved by the King. However, it soon became clear that plucking Dastan off the streets and raising him as a prince was the best decision he ever made, especially when Dastan saved humanity from wrath.
So it is all about choices - sometimes our choices kill us, sometimes they save us, and sometimes, they are the biggest regrets of our lives. But they are still ours, and in the end, we must live with them. Dastan got a second chance to change the past, but for everyone else, we can only limp along and hope that we make choices we can live wtih for 50-plus years.
Lots of Love,
Rachel
