This movie is one of those which will please some viewers while others will definitely not be so pleased. Some movies, by their very nature, provoke various but definite responses. There won’t be much ambivalence from viewers regarding this one. This movie has almost non-stop violence in it and I actually became bored at some parts because it was a pattern of arrows flying, hitting some people, sword fights, and fist fights and then…arrows flying, hitting some people, sword fights, fist fights and then…well, you get the idea. There is not a lot of blood, yet definitely some. But the continual onslaught of violence and action becomes tiresome. There is a major plot involving the mystical powers of a dagger. It can bend time. The viewer has to sit through a lot of over-done battles before the light bulb begins to go on over the head.

Jake Gyllenhaal is fine as the rogue-prince and would-be hero, Dastan, and he is in almost every major scene of the movie. He definitely earned his pay for this picture. Alfred Molina is quite good as a sort of businessman sheik named Amar but the modern usage of language is out of place. He makes such quips as, “Don’t press your luck”, “Tax free!” and “The bureaucrats!” And there is an interesting scene of an Ostrich race! For families though, the violence includes a very quick decapitation scene as well as a scene with a character knifed in the head and it is too intense for us to award our Dove “Family-Approved” Seal to the movie as a family-friendly film.