The Sorcerer's Apprentice Movie Review
The Sorcerer's Apprentice Movie Review
It's magic
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If you liked the National Treasure movies (I do), you enjoy Alfred Molina as a mustache-twirling villain (check!), and you are interested in black magic on any level (me, again) then you are bound to find something you like in The Sorcerer's Apprentice. The story, based on a classic poem by Goethe and most famously realized onscreen some 70 years ago by Mickey Mouse in Fantasia, follows the title character on his journey from awkward kid to commanding necromancer.
Directed, produced and acted by the same trio from the National Treasure films — that'd be Jon Turtletaub, Jerry Bruckheimer, and Nicolas Cage respectively — this charming Disney adventure (with just a touch of evil wizardry and black magic, thereby qualifying it for review here at horror.com) is bag-of-tricks fun. Fast-paced (perhaps a bit too-much so, even for the iPhone generation) and visually dazzling, this kid-friendly spectacle brings to mind a Something Wicked This Way Comes or a Vampire's Assistant. But in order for The Sorcerer's Apprentice to truly take its place in the bastion of keeper family fare, the main cast should have been younger.
Jay Baruchel is Dave, apprentice to Cage's sorcerer and Teresa Palmer plays Dave's lifelong love interest, Becky. At ages 28 and 24, the actors just don't look the part of fumbling, bumbling and naïve. They have some cute scenes together, but they're altogether too cutesy.
Aside from that rather obtrusive obstacle, the movie actually works well.
The Sorcerer's Apprentice is, first and foremost, an adventure and it's pretty exhilarating as Dave and Balthazar try and stay one step ahead of the evil and scheming baddies played by the aforementioned Molina, and Toby Kebbel. Kebbel puts in a hilarious and memorable performance as Drake Stone, the preening illusionist who brings to mind the spoilt love-child of Chris Angel and Russell Brand as he pouts and plots.
There are some great scenes of good vs. evil with the four main cast squaring off everywhere from Chinatown in a four-alarm fire to the choking confines of an urn. On the more lighthearted side, there is an homage to the famous Fantasia scene (which, to be quite honest… felt a little obligatory to me), as well as flashbacks to Dave's school days when he first met Balthazar at the age of 10 and what led to him being chosen as the Apprentice.
I haven't seen any of Cage's acting performances since I left off in 2008 or thereabouts, but he's well-cast here and he does a good job balancing Balthazar between beatific and badass — not to mention he can deliver the comedic lines (those intended, and not-intended) like nobody else in the biz. While he's not always consistent in quality, one thing Cage never is, is boring. As Balthazar he leaves center-stage clear for his protégé, but he does an ace job of keeping all the balls in the air when he does pop in.
Overall, I sum The Sorcerer's Apprentice up by saying: It's summer, it's popcorn, it's a little wicked and a lot of fun.
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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson