I was disappointed but I had pretty high hopes. I was looking forward to this movie because there was so much potential in almost every aspect of the production. You have a coming of age story mixed with magic and adventure, sound familiar? This is definitely going to be compared to Harry Potter and sadly, it doesn’t hold a candle next to it. But even so, it does conjure up an adventure for kids and fans of movies like the National Treasure series which shares the same director (Jon Turteltaub) and producer (Jerry Bruckheimer) as The Sorcerer’s Apprentice as well as the star, Nicolas Cage.
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is about a very old prophecy set by the great sorcerer Merlin himself and carried out for centuries by one of Merlin’s three apprentices, Balthazar Blake (Nicolas Cage) while battling his arch-nemesis who used to be his best friend and one of Merlin’s other apprentices, Maxim Horvath played by Alfred Molina. My first gripe of this movie is all the back story that they tried to stuff into the first five minutes. I was sitting next to a parent and her child and both of them were lost trying to explain what was going on to each other before the opening credits were even finished. I even got lost in some of the mumbo jumbo that was thrown together. There’s a lot of fluff in the story that I feel was unneeded…just get to the action!
777-Level Sorcerer Balthazar Blake (Nicolas Cage) and his arch-nemesis Maxim Horvath (Alfred Molina)
The action scenes and special effects were pretty cool. The post-production on this film is probably the highlight of it all. The magic in this movie is truly more on the sorcerer side rather than the magic wand side…you get plasma balls, metamorphosis, clever tricks, and a hard-hitting raging bull. The visual effects are as cool as the sorcery itself and adds a great dimension to the movie. I’m actually very glad Disney didn’t decide to do this movie in 3D, it would’ve messed up the grimey feel that it had. Those things aside, the plot was weak. I did expect more from a story that’s inspired from the classic film Fantasia. However, my favorite scene from The Sorcerer’s Apprentice was the dancing mops and brooms which is straight from the inspiring scene of Fantasia this movie is based upon. There are a few scenes that you can smile about and you’ll get a chuckle from some of the awkward conversations between sorcerer and apprentice but that’s all you’ll get: a chuckle.
The Sorcerer (Nicolas Cage) and his Apprentice (Jay Baruchel)
It was great to see the magic in the real world that we live in. The movie is based in New York and the bulk of the movie is set in modern day so kids and adults alike can see themselves being magicians and sorcerers in their own daily lives. The movie tries hard to make science “cool” as the sorcerer’s apprentice Dave played by Jay Baruchel is a physics nerd and explains a bunch of the magic in science terms. I don’t think it quite succeeded in this goal since Jay’s character was an annoying nerd who was just awkward (and not the good awkward like one of Michael Cera’s characters). He was even worse than his persona in She’s Out Of My League which was bearable and improved throughout that movie. In this movie, I got a bit peeved with his voice alongside the whispers of Nic Cage. In the end our scientific sorcerer, Dave, does get the girl, but who wouldn’t get the girl with plasma balls forming from their bare hands? (sorry if you think this is a spoiler but it’s incredibly predictable) Hopefully some kids get turned on to Physics from this movie, but I doubt there will be many converts…you’ll probably just get more kids playing Magic: The Gathering.
On that note, I think there should be a new film award for product placement because it’s starting to get ridiculous. This movie has so much product placement subtly positioned in scenes that you would think they were just coincidently there while the crew was shooting. I think I might start documenting the product placement in movies in a “Sponsored By” section, what do you guys think?
Tags: Alfred Molina, Jay Baruchel, Jerry Bruckheimer, Jon Turteltaub, Nicolas Cage, Teresa Palmer, The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Matthew Fong created advancescreenings.com and is the lead contributor. He watches every type of movie and will try almost anything twice. You can follow him on twitter here: @matthewfong
