Here's my complete breakdown.
Acting
Everyone did very well. Could have used a bit more chemistry between Dastan and Tamina
Story and Adaptation
Adapting a video game is very hard and when I had written my own version of a PoP movie, I took elements of all the games and came up with a new plot with the same essential plot. Why? You can't have what the game only did. It just doesn't work. Jumping straight into sand creatures might not have been the best decision on a series standpoint, but the Hassanssins did serve as a semi-non-human group of foes. With how the movie ended, it seems that sand creatures and the Dahaka will both be next. The allusions to the game were well balanced as were the allusions to actual Persian history and myths. Although the historical elements were thousands of years apart at times, I had no problem with it as they didn't use any historical events or names to make an attempt at grounding it (ala 300... oh dear God I hated that film).
Music:
The music was FANTASTIC!!!
Editing:
Ok, this was a tossup for me. The fight scenes and the scenes in which the sands were used were edited very well. The acrobatic scenes and the text were done poorly. The acrobatic scenes should have been a full continuous angle per feat instead of cutting to multiple angles. He ran on walls many times but we never got one, full continuous angle of the trademarks move. Also the text just looked very amateurish (besides the main logo).
Writing:
I was fine with the writing aside from the one time when Dastan looks to the screen and explains exactly how the dagger works a second after we saw it for ourselves. We get it...
References:
The neo-writings in the film were done in current farsi-arabic writing but all the older ones were done in Persian cuneiform. The architecture also went from Arabic to Persian depending on where they were. Some of them talked about multiple Gods and others about one, these religious differences existed in Persia (and still do). The names Dastan and Tamina are both from Ferdowsi's Shahnameh (Dastan being a white, Persian hero with bright eyes (his name means Albino) and Tahmineh was a Princess of another land which a Persian hero (Rostam) married. Rostam and his people were fooled into attacking Tamineh's people under false pretenses). The costumes referenced the WW Prince and the 2008 Prince. They also jabbed at Persian pride and nationalism which is a dominant part of Persian culture. The "non-existent" weapons reference to Iraq was kind of shlock. I also would have loved a reference to Ormazd/Ahura Mazda or Ahriman hell even Kakalukia!!!!
Overall I loved it and I think the next one should start with the sands coming out of the grounds of Alamut, slowly growing and consuming people creating Sand Creatures. At the same time, the Dahaka should emerge looking for the three Princes and Tamina who all escaped their deaths.
