Game vs Movie | The Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.

Wednesday 1 July 2020


With the rumours flying around that a new prince of Persia is in the works I knew I had to carry on with this series I started and I'm so glad I could choose this movie/game as I love them both and my partner is a big fan too. I want to change the layout of this post from what I did for Silent Hill so instead of doing two separate sections on game and movie I will incorporate both throughout the post in one go. First up what we need to remember is there are a good few prince of Persia games but the main one we are talking about will be The Sands of Time which the movie is based lossely on.

The movie and game have very different stories and backgrounds to them but each is just as appealing in their own way, for me though I would probably choose the game over the movie just because I can play through my own story and this is why I love to game so much. The game was released in 2003 and the movie in 2010 so there is a big gap between the two, right away you will learn they gave the movie version of the prince a name whereas the video game he is never referred to by his name but the creator of The Prince of Persia franchise did choose the name Dastan which is what he is called in the movies. The reason behind the name Dastan is that it means "trickster" in Persian and fits perfectly with the setting of the movie as well as what the prince was good at. 


I'm going to be honest here, it's been years since I played any of The Prince of Persia games so my memory is a little rusty but they were very popular and because of them we were given the Assassin's Creed Franchise which has blown up over the years. The last Prince of Persia game that was released was back in 2010, it's about time we had a new one soon don't you think? Sands of Time (game) proved to be very popular and people are still playing it to this day the story follows Dastan who is a prince (not an orphan) who travels through India with his army to visit the Sultan of Azad but not everything goes to plan and The Vizier, who is basically the king's adviser, wants immortality but in order to do this needs the Sands of Time which are inside the Dagger of Time so he hatches a plan to trick the prince into attacking the Maharaja's palace where the sands are stored in order to bring his plan together.

The dagger is found and the Vizier being a sneaky devil convinces the prince to release the sands and it turns everyone but him and a few others into monsters that the prince has to face throughout the game, I can obviously see why they wouldn't go with this in the movie as it's added work along with the budget so we don't get to see monsters which are a shame but the story is pretty similar but kind of follows the story of The Prince of Egypt where the king and queen take on an orphaned child, I ain't mad about this because over the centuries there have been countless stories similar to this. In the movie as Dastan gets older he has become a great warrior and Assassin, much like the game he finds the dagger but doesn't understand what it does and keeps going back in time and wasting the sand, his uncle is the one that betrays the king in this movie and tricks everyone into believing Dastan tried to kill the king with a poisoned robe.


Dastan goes on a journey to prove his innocence but in the process has to convince his loved once he isn't lying, Jake Gyllenhaal does a great job as the role of Dastan and pulls off a pretty good English accent although it's weird how they don't have a Persian accent considering it's about Persia, they also have English accents in the game too but maybe I'm just being picky? The movie and game both have very similar surroundings but I suppose you can only create so much in a movie without it costing a bomb, the graphics in both still hold up pretty well compared to the graphics we see in movies and games in 2020. I also didn't realise until one of my friends mentioned it that the movie is actually a Disney movie, it doesn't seem the kind of thing I would ever associate with them, if you want to watch the movie yourself it's on Disney+.

What draws me in with the whole franchise was how visually stunning the world and atmosphere that surrounds you is, there is something about being surrounded by sand that makes me want to explore and find hidden places, see what others are doing and meet new characters. The movie brought the game together wonderfully with the beautiful castles and bustling markets full of interesting people with their own stories. I think what we all need to remember is that it's ok to change the story sometimes, even though I would like to have seen the outcome of the movie that followed the game the revised storyline helps us see that The Prince of Persia can work even if he is from a different up bringing and background. 

As I said before the game appeals to me a lot more than the movie and it kind of got me thinking about how a new Prince of Persia would look especially next to the latest AC game Valhalla, I definitely think we have more than enough room for a new game and with all the rumours flying about I would be very much interesting to see what direction they take it in and how different the prince will look. I would also like another movie if I'm honest, it's not like Sands of Time wasn't a success and it did make a big profit compared to what it cost to make. Considering sand is a big focus in The Prince of Persia it would be nice to have them still focus on this in some kind of way a bit like the Apple of Eden in AC, it's something that's incorporated into the games as a big main element and I know that the last game The Forgotten Sands showed us more but wouldn't it be cool if we had flashbacks and other peoples history to do with the sand incorporated in a new game or even movie! 



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