Prince Of Persia
Excited about the new action adventure epic from "the producer of The Pirates Of The Caribbean"? Don’t be.
'Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time' is a big-budget blow-out, a drab attempt to finally make a decent movie from a videogame.
Sadly, like every game-to-movie transfer (from Tomb Raider to Hitman), Prince Of Persia is about as adrenaline-pumping as knitting. Only the opening raid on a fortified city offers much in the spectacle department, and the story, characters and situations rarely fire up.
So, while you won’t get much out of watching Prince Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton) trot about ancient Persia, keeping the powerful “Sands Of Time” away from the baddies, this disappointing blockbuster does contain fuel for discussion.
“The gods have a plan for you. A destiny,” Tamina tells Dastan who, as a boy, was saved from being an orphaned street kid by the Persian king. Words like “the gods”, “destiny”, “fate” and “faith” are loaded terms, rattled off willy-nilly in Prince Of Persia, used for their mystical properties rather than any substantial portrait of a superhuman force or a real God beyond ourselves.
Tamina and Dastan are from different kingdoms which follow different religions. What these faith systems are is never explained. Instead, insights and information don’t go beyond new-agey, vague statements such as “you have discovered a new sense of spiritual awareness” or “their faith has little love for any truth but its own”.
The overall impression of divine power offered by Prince Of Persia is similar to how many in the modern world profess belief in a higher being, yet the shape, worship, relationship, obligations and evidence associated with this deity (or deities) is a matter of individual invention.
Prince Of Persia’s loose references to Christianity – such as one “pure” person sacrificing themselves, so “the gods” don’t destroy humanity as punishment for its sins – have no direct link to Christianity itself.
Due to Christian teaching and imagery being familiar to many people worldwide, movies and other popular art forms frequently inject Christian concepts into other religious contexts.
When those you know reflect upon Prince Of Persia’s high level of religious subject matter, remind them of where they can find meaning deeper than a videogame.