History YMMV / PrinceOfPersiaTheSandsOfTime

* VideoGameMoviesSuck: While not exactly seen as the ''worst'' film, it's rarely held as anything above "mildly entertaining". However, unlike the typical example, it is a rare case where is is perfectly watchable without even knowing it's a video game adaptation.
* VindicatedByHistory: Despite making over three hundred million dollars world wide the film got poor reviews when it released and there were numerous criticisms (such as casting white actors to play Middle Eastern people, see below) as well as favourable comparisons to the much loved 2003 game it was adapting. In the years since the 2008 film with the video game adaptation stigma being upended thanks to ''WesternAnimation/{{Castlevania}}'', ''Film/PokemonDetectivePikachu'', ''Film/SonicTheHedgehog'', ''Series/TheLastOfUs'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperMarioBrosMovie'', more people than ever have [[https://gamerant.com/prince-of-persia-movie-good/ conceded]] that it is actually a pretty solid and fun adaptation of the games. Most people will also agree it is easily superior and more fun than ''Film/AssassinsCreed2016'' which is far dryer and less swashbuckling.

* ScrappyMechanic: Every time you finish a fight, the camera will focus on the Prince as he holsters his weapons in a slow-mo fashion, and the screen will flash white afterwards. This visual effect may be dramatic and all, but the entire animation is quite long and you can't regain control until the animation finishes, a bane of {{speedrun}}ners. This trope would be the reason why this "victory animation" got scrapped in the next ''Prince of Persia'' games, with the Prince's post-combat animation now blended into the gameplay without interruptions.

* VideoGameMoviesSuck: While not exactly seen as the ''worst'' film, it's rarely held as anything above "mildly entertaining". However, unlike the typical example, it isa rare case where is is perfectly watchable without even knowing it's a video game adaptation.

** The very last regular battle of the game can also be challenging as [[spoiler:the Dagger has no Sand in it and, because the sword you're using is so powerful that enemies are reduced to dust with just one swing, you won't be able to refill it either, meaning you won't be able to undo getting hit by an attack nor will you have access to any Sand powers. The only way to refill the Dagger is if one of the enemies knocks down one of their own. You can snag a refill while they're downed but you'll never be able to refill enough Sand Tanks in order to your Power Tanks, meaning you still need to use pure swordsmanship to come out on top]]. The FinalBoss doesn't have this issue as you will have a full set of Sand Tanks at the start (your Power Tanks will also be full but the Sand abilities aren't that helpful here), although you won't be able to refill them during the fight.

** The very last regular battle of the game can also be challenging as [[spoiler:the Dagger has no Sand in it and, because the sword you're using is so powerful that enemies are reduced to dust with just one swing, you won't be able to refill it either, meaning you won't be able to undo getting hit by an attack nor will you have access to any Sand powers. The only way to refill the Dagger is if one of the enemies knocks down one of their own. You can snag a refill while they're downed but you'll never be able to refill enough Sand Tanks in order add to your Power Tanks, meaning you still need to use pure swordsmanship to come out on top]]. The FinalBoss doesn't have this issue as you will have a full set of Sand Tanks at the start (your Power Tanks will also be full but the Sand abilities aren't that helpful here), although you won't be able to refill them during the fight.

* CriticProof: To a degree. While professional critics mostly trashed it and audiences were far more forgiving, the divide between both groups isn't all ''that'' big: by Rotten Tomatoes scores, that's 37% and 58%, respectively, while Metacritic aggregated data makes that 50 and 72. And of course, it is the 2nd highest grossing video game movie to date, so people were clearly enjoying it despite all the faults.

* VideoGameMoviesSuck: While not exactly seen as the ''worst'' film, it's rarely held as anything above "mildly entertaining". However, unlike typical example, it is the rare case where is is perfectly watchable without even knowing it's a video game adaptation.
* WTHCastingAgency: Let's just say casting white actors to play the Persian characters hasn't exactly been well recived by Iranian-Americans. It's gets even worse due to the actors sporting BrownFace for the parts.

* SugarWiki/DevelopmentHeaven: Creator/JakeGyllenhaal had to learn [[LeParkour parkour]] in preparation for his role.

* CompleteMonster: [[EvilChancellor The Vizier]], from the ''Sands of Time'' series, is the terminally ill advisor of the Maharajah, and is [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder willing to betray everyone]] to obtain [[ImmortalitySeeker immortality and godhood]]. [[VideoGame/BattlesOfPrinceOfPersia In flashbacks]], he abducts the wife of Daeva prince Saurva to compel the latter to steal the Box of One Thousand Restraints from the Persians, knowingly causing the war between Persians and Daevas, then murders the hostage anyway and seals Saurva and his army inside the box. He subsequently curses Saurva's sister with madness upon her refusal to marry him. [[VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheSandsOfTime Years later]], he betrays the Maharajah by allowing the Persian army to take the city. The Vizier later tricks the Prince into causing the Sands of Time to turn the population of Azad into sand monsters. When the Prince rewinds time to warn Farah, the Vizier plots to kill them both and [[FrameUp frame]] the Prince for the murder of Farah. [[VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheTwoThrones After his death has been undone]], the Vizier, leading an army, murders the Maharajah before he sacks Babylon and has King Sharaman killed. He then kills Kaileena, the Empress of Time, causing the Sands of Time to reappear and turn the Vizier's army into monsters. Ruling Babylon as the renamed [[AGodAmI God of Time]], Zurvan, he allows his generals to commit atrocities on the civilians such as taking them to the arena while he personally kills the resistance and finally abducts Farah to transform her into his immortal queen.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: The entire ostrich race part of the plot has all the guns primed and hung up on the walls to make you think that Dastan and Tamina will end up escaping the place on the backs of the ostriches... which never happens and is never used for anything. It's disappointing enough to even get mentioned in reviews, including Creator/RogerEbert's.

* VideoGameMoviesSuck: While not exactly seen as the ''worst'' film, it's rarely held as anything above "mildly entertaining."

** [[spoiler:The reason Sharaman's reign was so prosperous is that the two brothers ruled ''together''. Nizam was obviously the brains, while Sharaman was the face and MoralityChain. Take either of them out of the equasion and the kingdom would go to the dogs. It's a shame that Nizam never understood his importance.]]

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Given that King Sharaman apparently spends most of his time drinking, enjoying the company of his wives and studying religious scripture, how ''[[TheGoodKing good]]'' of a King is he really? [[spoiler: Considering that Nizam is implied to have always been the true power behind the throne, even though he's evil, how badly would he have ruled the Empire, when he's been basically doing that for ''decades?!'']]

* TaintedByThePreview: The remake's September 2020 announcement trailer got mixed reactions for its subpar graphics and character redesigns.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: This game was notable for popularizing two things way back the early 2000's and had since inspired newer games to do the same.
** LeParkour as its core gameplay, with the levels being designed to fully make use of the Prince's movement abilities and feats. It features faster maneuverability than most platforming games of its time. But ever since Ubisoft implemented all that they've learned from this game into the newer ''Assassin's Creed'' franchise and found that as their new CashCowFranchise, the ''Prince of Persia'' games fell into obscurity from the eyes of the younger generation in TheNewTens.
** Real-time and in-game time-manipulation abilities brought about by the Dagger of Time. It was a unique twist not seen in a lot of games prior to 2003. What made it especially memorable is that all of these mechanics are key elements of the plot in the ''Sands of Time'' trilogy, that if a ''Prince of Persia'' fan talks about the story of the game, it is impossible not to mention the Prince's time-manipulation abilities. While newer titles from the 2010's onwards do have time-manipulation abilities as well (i.e. ''VideoGame/{{GRID}}'' and ''VideoGame/LifeIsStrange''), they aren't as varied and diverse compared to what ''Prince of Persia'' did. Unfortunately, a lot of new gamers don't realize this since the franchise didn't have more installments past 2010.
* TaintedByThePreview: The announcement of the remake got mixed rection for its subpar graphics and characters looking different.

* ThatOneLevel

** The very last regular battle of the game can also be challenging as [[spoiler:the Dagger has no Sand in it and, because the sword you're using is so powerful that enemies are reduced to dust with just one swing, you won't be able to refill it either, meaning you won't be able to undo getting hit by an attack nor will you have access to any Sand powers. The only way to refill the Dagger is if one of the enemies knocks down one of their own. You can snag a refill while they're downed but you'll never be able to refill enough Sand Tanks in order add to your Power Tanks]]. The FinalBoss doesn't have this issue as you will have a full set of Sand Tanks at the start (your Power Tanks will also be full but the Sand abilities aren't that helpful here), although you won't be able to refill them during the fight.

** The very last regular battle of the game can also be challenging as [[spoiler:the Dagger has no Sand in it and, because the sword you're using is so powerful that enemies are reduced to dust with just one swing, you won't be able to refill it either, meaning you won't be able to undo getting hit by an attack nor will you have access to any Sand powers. The only way to refill the Dagger is if one of the enemies knocks down one of their own and you snag a refill while they're downed and you'll never be able to refill enough tanks in order to perform any Sand power attacks]]. The FinalBoss doesn't have this issue as you will have a full set of Sand Tanks at the start (your Power Tanks will also be full but the Sand abilities aren't that helpful here), although you won't be able to refill them during the fight.

** The very last regular battle of the game can also be challenging as [[spoiler:the Dagger has no sand in it and, because the sword you're using is so powerful that enemies are reduced to dust with just one swing, you won't be able to refill it either, meaning you won't be able to undo getting hit by an attack nor will you have access to any Sand powers. The only way to refill the Dagger is if one of the enemies knocks down one of their own and you snag a refill while they're downed and you'll never be able to refill enough tanks in order to perform any Sand power attacks]]. The FinalBoss doesn't have this issue as you will have a full set of Sand Tanks at the start (your Power Tanks will also be full but the Sand abilities aren't that helpful here), although you won't be able to refill them during the fight.

* ThatOneLevel: The Tower of Dawn elevator. The battle itself is not necessarily that difficult, the real challenge is trying to keep Farah alive. Using the Mega-Freeze is almost imperative here (as shown in the vision prior to boarding) and when you use it can make all the difference (as use it too early and you leave too many powerful enemies alive to keep off of Farah by yourself).

* ThatOneBoss: The Sand King is one of the game's only two bosses and quite a few players would argue he is in fact ''the'' hardest one to beat, especially considering that you need to face him relatively early in the game.
* ThatOneLevel: The Tower of Dawn elevator. The battle itself is not necessarily that difficult, the real challenge is trying to keep Farah alive. Using the Mega-Freeze is almost imperative here (as shown in the vision prior to boarding) and when you use it can make all the difference (as use it too early and you leave too many powerful enemies alive to keep off of Farah by yourself).

* ThatOneLevel: The Tower of Dawn elevator. The battle itself is not necessarily that difficult, the real challenge is trying to keep Farah alive. Using the Mega-Freeze is almost imperative here (as shown in the vision prior to boarding) and when you use it can make all the difference (as use it too early and you leave too many power enemies alive to keep off of Farah by yourself).

* ThatOneLevel: The Tower of Dawn elevator. The battle itself is not necessarily that difficult, the real challenge is trying to keep Farah alive.

!!The game provides examples of:

!!The film provides examples of: