We make our own destiny by the sands of time

With that title, one would expect the wide expand of desert, sand storms, scorching heat and of course a handsome Persian prince and beautiful princess. What I didn’t bargain for was to watch a combination of Aladdin and The Scorpion King all in one movie.

Given the publicity before the release of the movie itself, I was interested to see what all the hype was all about. The movie which was taken from a video game from the same name was created by Jordan Mechner, a computer programmer in 1989 for one of Apple’s earliest machines at the time.

Directed by Mike Newell who is known for Four Weddings and a Funeral through Donnie Brasco to a segment of the Harry Potter franchise, this movie lacks originality.

Dastan is not a prince by birth. Plucked off the mean streets by the King and raised in the court, he’s an adopted royal, undeniably noble in character but doesn’t have blue blood nor does he have an eye on the throne. But that doesn’t stop the jealous enmity from the monarch’s natural-born sons, Tus and Garsiv. Sound familiar?

Fast forward fifteen years later, the brothers, all grown up now lead the Persian army in an attack on the sacred city of Alamut, after they were convinced by Nizam (Ben Kingsley), the King’s brother and adviser, that the  people were selling weapons to their enemies. As Garsiv leads the initial assault, Dastan decides to lead a sneak attack at the east side with his childhood friend Bis (Reece Ritchie) against the orders of his brother.

He manages to open the eastern gate of Alamut and prevents further casualties. Here you get to see how prepared Gyllenhaal was for the role; combining acrobatic moves and something that looks very close to the French art of parkour (maybe he’s is more to the ancient Persian art kind) he clambers up walls and jumps across rooftops convincingly and impressively well.

During the fight in the city, Prince Dastan kills one of Princess Tamina’s (Gemma Arterton) guards who was in the possession of the mythical Dagger of Time which gives its owner the ability to go back in time for a short period and defy the future and its user is the only person that knows it’s been used. Yes, a time-machine of sorts.

The Persians celebrate their victory and during the celebration, Prince Dastan presents a poisonous robe to King Sharaman (Ronald Pickup) which was given to him by Tus. To cut a long story short, the robe burns and kills the King and Prince Dastan is held responsible for the murder.

He escapes the castle with Princess Tamina hence embarking on a journey for different reasons - for the Prince to prove his innocence and the princess to safeguard the Dagger of Time. The people they meet on their journey through the Valley of the Slaves are interesting (in the Scorpion King, it was Valley of the Dead), an entrepreneur and  ostrich racing-organizer Sheik Amar (Alfred Molina) who is bent on not paying taxes and his friend Seso (Steve Toussaint), an Ngbaka master of throwing knives.

Other interesting characters include the Hassassins, a wicked band of knife-savvy assassins that are contracted by Nizam to get rid of Dastan. And of course Nizam played by Kingsley, sly with no facial expressions to give him away. But what striked me as a bit odd was all the Persians speak the King’s English with a pronounced British accent except for Gyllenhaal. Arterton does look the princess she is made to be but seems stilted in her banter with our hero.

This movie also has a tendency to repeat lines three times. Sheik Amar is fond of saying “Have I told you of the Ngbaka and their knives?” while Dastan is prone to saying, “We make our own destiny” exactly like the Scorpion King. But if the destiny of this movie was just to entertain, it did an okay job. What it lacked in plot, it made up in the fighting scenes that were pretty commendable and the scenary in Morocco that was most amazing.