The Sorcerer’s Apprentice Review
In The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Nicolas Cage plays Balthazar Blake, a wizard more than a thousand years old who has taken residence in modern-day New York City. Balthazar has looked long and hard for the Prime Merlinian, the magician who will defeat the evil sorceress Morgana (Alice Krige) and her sidekick Horvath (Alfred Molina). Both Morgana and Horvath were locked up 1300 years ago inside an ancient nesting doll by the great magician, Merlin and with the help of the love of Horvath’s life, Veronica (Monica Belluci). Unfortunately, Horvath has managed to escape and he is now terrorizing New York in search of the doll so he can release Morgana and they can both destroy the world with their evil ways.
Enter an awkward geek named Dave Stutler (Jay Baruchel), a physics genius from NYU. Although Dave had a brush with Balthazar as a young boy, it is not until he is in his early 20′s that he is informed that he is none other than the Prime Merlinian. Unfortunately, Dave is more interested in chasing after an out-of-his-league hottie named Becky (Teresa Palmer) than he is interested in saving the world. It is up to Balthazar to open Dave’s eyes and teach him to become the sorcerer’s apprentice. From there, hopefully Dave and Balthazar can team up to save the planet from Morgana and Horvath.
If you are basically able to suspend all reality and any notion that people actually live in New York and walk on the streets, then there is a chance that you will find The Sorcerer’s Apprentice to be somewhat entertaining. There are probably a few too many scenes that take place on the streets of New York that are just not logically possible (like a high-speed car chase going through Times Square and the big final showdown in Manhattan with not a single innocent New Yorker standing anywhere in sight) but if you are able to put these unlikely scenarios aside and realize that The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is just a loud, action-filled summer flick overloaded with special effects, well, then you might just enjoy this film. I actually found it to be fairly entertaining and not too long and drawn out, which nowadays seems like a rarity coming out of Hollywood. The movie runs an enjoyable 90 minutes, which is perfect for a movie of this pedigree. The Scorcerer’s Apprentice is not a movie you’re going to hear mentioned in January come Oscar time. In fact, overall, it’s pretty forgettable. But I will guarantee that this is a movie that, in the coming years, we are bound to see play over and over again on television. So as forgettable as it is, it will be a very difficult movie to actually have erased from our memories. It’s clean, it’s short and it’s fun and as a result, it’s the perfect movie for young children and teens to enjoy and an even more perfect movie to hit the television networks in the near future with no chance of offending anyone.
On top of that, the combination of Nic Cage, Alfred Molina and Jay Baruchel give decent performances that make the movie all the more enjoyable. Cage shows up with his signature wig and is charismatic and funny. Molina, despite being the villain, also has a good sense of humour about his whole situation but is quite the ruthless miscreant nonetheless. And Jay Baruchel does what he seems to do best – playing the awkward dweeb who just can’t seem to do things right but still manages to get the girl.
I can think of a worse way to spend a Saturday night or a Sunday afternoon. Watching The Sorcerer’s Apprentice in a theatre is not one of those ways. It’s a surprisingly entertaining movie that is worth checking out. (7 out of 10)
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