Action/Adventure/Family | rated PG (V) | starring Jay Baruchel, Nicholas Cage, Alfred Molina | directed by Jon Turteltaub | 1:49 mins
10 years after nerdy Dave (Jay Baruchel) is traumatized by witnessing a fight by two arch enemy sorcerers on a field trip, he is once again called back into the middle of their duel as Balthazar (Nicholas Cage) believes that Dave is the rightful descendent of Merlin able to kill an imprisoned evil sorcerer whom Horvath (Alfred Molina) intends to set free so that she may summon her followers to lay waste to the world. But first the awkward physics student must learn the art of magic as the sorcerer’s apprentice.
As seeds for a movie idea go, it doesn’t get much thinner than the wordless The Sorcerer’s Apprentice short from Fantasia. Though, I won’t lie, a smile did creep across my face at the sight of those mops spliting their bristles and starting cleaning the laboratory and the sound of a remix of that familiar music chiming in – even if it’s all shoehorned into the movie with all the subtlty of a Charles in Charge storyline (oh no, the place is a mess and I’ve got a date coming over). It’s a remake in name only, more inspired by Harry Potter mania than a short from the 40s and a bit of a sibling to Chris Columbus’ New York set mythology adventure Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
What sets The Sorcerer’s Apprentice apart from Percy Jackson and Harry Potter is it’s pension for sheer mad-capped craziness (that and it approaches magic from a physics perspective). If it wasn’t a Disney family film, this CGI-filled live-action cartoon would still be a fun B-movie. Baby’s first B-movie. Headlining that tone is Nicholas Cage giving a wild-eyed performance full of overly agressive line-readings (“I can read your mind” he bellows as Balthazar’s awkward version of a joke). It’s an outlandishly terrible performance that would have absolutely sunk a more serious production. Right there with him is director Jon Turteltaub who seems to be working off of several shots of Red Bull since their decidedly dull-drum National Treasure films.
It’s a special effects ride, with an imaginative use for those effects along the way. The best being a mirror spell that throws you into backwards mirror world and leads to the movie’s best action set piece. The sorcerer’s weapon of choice is a plasma bolt and given the last time I saw a training scene involving a plasma bolt it was from the atrocious Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li, it is safe to say that The Sorcerer’s Apprentice does the bit better. Also in it’s stable are wolves, building statues converted to giant falcons, chinese dragon floats turned into a real dragon and cars converted into… any other vehicle. And I love that it doesn’t put a spotlight on all of it’s visual gags, but places them all around the frame.
Jay Baruchel’s continued awkward transition from Undeclared to movie leading man is a testiment to the power of Judd Apatow’s influence. He seems to be the go-to nerd when Michael Cera is out of the budget. But he works here because he’s asked to be little more than the fish out of water. He’s given a romance with Teresa Palmer, that is planted in the movie so early it looks as though nobody told Turteltaub those things are usually tacked on. Unfortunately, Turteltaub also drags in pop songs like OneRepublic’s cringe-inducing “Secrets” for the couple to bond over in case anyone has forgotten this is still a Disney movie.
There’s also a fun turn here from Toby Kebbell as the screenplay’s most clever character. I dug the idea that parlor acts like Chris Angel or David Blaine are actual magicians in training, dissapointing their mentors by wasting away their powers to get rich and famous.
It’s rough around the edges, the plot is overly convoluted (that sorcerer Horvath wants to free is ALSO trapped in the body of the love of Balthazar’s life, inside her artifact trap) and it has it’s down times, but the movie is endlessly imaginative where it counts. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is a goofy good time not to be taken too seriously. A fast, fun, creative family film with baddies just grotesque enough to scare the younger kids and amuse the adults. Basically, this is a silly movie and everyone involved knows it – and because of that, it’s a surprisingly very good time.