We have to admit, watching the trailer for Nicholas Cage’s latest offering The Sorcerer’s Apprentice did fill us with a sense of hope that it might actually be kind of good. Boy were we wrong!
The story of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice is a simple enough concept. In 740 AD, one of Merlin’s three apprentices Maxim Horvath betrays him by joining forces with the evil sorceress Morgana le Fay. After Merlin is mortally wounded, his other two apprentices Balthazar Blake and Veronica try and stop her but she is too powerful. Their only choice is to trap her and Horvath inside a grimhold, similar to a nesting doll, until they can find Merlin’s successor who is the only one with the power to defeat Morgana. Cut to the year 2010 where Balthazar finds the one he’s been looking for, an awkward 20 year old physics student called Dave from Manhattan. Following so far? After Horvath is accidently released, it’s a race against time to recapture him before he releases Morgana on the world once more. So no pressure then!
Jay Baruchel, whom you might remember from small roles in Knocked Up and Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist stars as our hero Dave. He’s the right amount of geeky for the role without being too annoying. After a slew of disappointing role choices in recent years we finally thought Nick Cage had maybe taken a step in the right direction with this one, however his character Balthazar Blake is just so bland that even some well delivered one-liners can’t save him. Alfred Molina seems to having mastered the art of playing a villain who is a threatening as a cute little puppy. You might remember him as Doc Oc in Spiderman 2? Well it’s the same deal here. Lots of talking about what he’s going to do, and not so much of the follow through.
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice has the trademark Jerry Bruckheimer production stamp all over it. It comes to us from director Jon Turtletaub and distributors Walt Disney Pictures, the team who also brought us the National Treasure movies. So as you can imagine it’s got a big budget, a fairly well known cast, impressive special effects, and a story that probably works well on paper. But some things just don’t transfer well to the big screen. After an engaging start filled with the promise of a good story, the film just feels like it takes too long to get where it’s supposed to be going. One nice touch that made us smile was the tribute to the original Fantasia scene with the out of control mops! Other than that the special effects felt wasted on a terribly drawn out movie.
All in all, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is a movie that made promises it couldn’t keep. The cast probably did their best with the material they had to work with, but even they couldn’t save it. It might impress kids who dream of being magicians or who enjoy the wonders of physics, but it definitely doesn’t appeal to anyone over the age of twelve. There is talk of a sequel already happening even though this installment didn’t achieve many great reviews or much box office success, and it kind of leaves us asking ourselves, why bother?
