Director: Jon Turtletaub
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Jar Baruchel & Alfred Molina
An unremarkable, though still likeable, film: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice features some nice effects and an enjoyable cast even though it offers nothing particularly memorable.
The second attempt by producer Jerry Bruckheimer to start another, family friendly, film franchise to follow Pirates of the Caribbean in 2010, the first being Prince of Persia, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice comes to cinemas inspired by the popular sequence in Disney’s Fantasia. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice turns out to be a fairly enjoyable film with a likeable cast and good effects though it succeeds most when it strays away from elements that inspired it and, despite its likeability, doesn’t really offer many characters or moments that are particularly memorable.
After a battle in 740AD, the wizard Merlin lies dying and his nemesis Morgana (Alice Krige) trapped in a nesting doll after possessing one of his apprentices, Veronica (Monica Bellucci). Merlin tells his other apprentice Balthazar (Cage) that only his successor can defeat Morgana and entrusts Balthazar with his ring which will alert Balthazar as to who that successor will be. Over a thousand years later in the year 2000, Balthazar has not found Merlin’s successor but has tracked down and trapped many followers of Morgana’s, including another of Merlin’s apprentices named Horvath (Molina) who betrayed them all to Morgana in the past. Balthazar finds Merlin’s apprentice by chance, a ten year old boy, but is trapped in an urn for 10 years along with Horvath after Horvath escapes the nesting doll. 10 years later, in 2010, both escape the urn and seek out Merlin’s successor Dave (Baruchel) who has grown up to become a nervy, though talented, physics student. Dave, reluctant to believe or accept his destiny as Merlin’s successor must nevertheless learn the skills from Balthazar if he is to survive Horvath and stop him from bringing back Morgana.
Inspired by an animated short starring Mickey Mouse that was part of the feature film Fantasia, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice mines more than what was present to build its story and characters much like the Pirates of the Caribbean films did with the theme park rides on which they were based. It is with the new material where The Sorcerer’s Apprentice impresses most as a scene paying homage to the most famous scene from the cartoon stands out as being out of place. The film’s most intriguing and enjoyable twist is to introduce science into a film about magic and wizards. Its lead character, Dave, grows up to become a physics student building Tesla Coils in and abandoned subway to conduct electrical experiments. While this elements leads to an enjoyable romantic scene with Dave’s love interest where he ‘plays’ the Tesla Coils as each burst produces its own musical note, the science elements also compare well with the magic elements where the wizards control fire and produce plasma balls that look, not too unlike, the energy emitted from Dave’s Tesla Coils. This blending of science and magic, or scientists and wizards is fun though when the film strays from this blurring of lines, such as in a set piece with a dragon in Chinatown, it disappoints. The science however, is the film’s one most notable achievement as the plot itself remains predictable and some of the characters thin. There is also a curious lack of danger which, even for a family film, undermines some of the tension and Dave’s journey and romance with an old school sweetheart seem to occur because the story dictates they should rather that through a process that feels more natural and satisfying.
None of the cast of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice especially stands out. All seem to be playing personas they have played before though many are, nevertheless, satisfactory. Baruchel still entertains with his nervy, nerd persona with jokes coming better when he is able to infuse them with his nervous energy. Nicolas Cage puts in a rather restrained performance as the pretty grumpy wizard Balthazar which is decent but could have benefitted from some of the nervous tics he better known for. Toby Kebbell gets to steal a few scenes as an assistant to Alfred Molina’s Horvath as Kebbell’s character has exploited his abilities in the present to become an entertainer, a famous magician and thus infuses his performance with some swagger. Molina too is entertaining as the villain Horvath though is not able to truly make the character feel threatening unlike his performance in Spider-Man 2 which was threatening as well as sympathetic depending on the needs of the scene. The rest of the cast are largely average and/or forgettable. Monica Bellucci and Teresa Palmer appear as love interests for Balthazar and Dave respectively and are given very little to do accept appear interested whilst other characters barely have time to make an impression.
While possessing a likeable cast, effects and some interesting blurring of lines between magic and science, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice plays things too safe too often, sticking to a too familiar formula that makes the film enjoyable but not particularly memorable.
Rating: 3/5
