My Movie Review: The Sorcerer's Apprentice

My Movie Review: The Sorcerer's Apprentice

3/5

Opening Statement: John Turteltaub, director of National Treasure, joins producer Jerry Bruckheimer in bringing us The Sorcerer's Apprentice. This story follows Dave, played by Jay Baruchel, a 20-year-old college physic nerd who, during his childhood, had an incident with Balthazar, a mysterious sorcerer played by Nicholas Cage. Now Dave must work with Balthazar to stop en evil sorcerer named Horvath, played by Alfred Molina, from ENSLAVING THE HUMAN RACE.

What's Good: Bruckheimer is the summer movie guy. His movies are never the best of the summer, but they are fun nonetheless. There are certain things about The Sorcerer's Apprentice that are simply, magical. I understood they had some inspiration from the dancing broom scene in Fantasia. It is scenes like that in Sorcerer's Apprentice that put a smile on my face. Also the tasteful cheesy comedy. The jokes don't necessarily make you laugh, but make you smile and feel good. The actors bring a great deal of charisma to the scene. Cage and Molina are the best here. The way Christopher Nolan brings out the best in his actors, I see this from Bruckheimer films as well. Especially a modest Jay Baruchel who seems to be joining the sarcastic comedy team (Eisenberg, Rudd, Cera) however he keeps his stuff on a very PG level, I was impressed by his performance to say the least. The whole premise of The Sorcerer's Apprentice makes you feel the Disney within, which is a very good thing.

What's Bad: While the actors made me care very much for the characters, I didn't feel much emotional involvement in the story. In fact I was thirsty for more. Unlike Prince of Persia which had you more into the story than into the characters. You see, I loved the sequences with the dancing brooms, the flying swords so much that I wanted more. The effects of fireballs and lightening strikes aren't that impressive, but they do good with the effects. The Sorcerer's Apprentice may be something you only remember for a week or two, but it holds its own in a time when summer blockbusters go large scale.

The Rant: No Rant.

Consensus: The Sorcerer's Apprentice makes you smile often with its Disney feeling. The kids will definitely love it and want the action figures the next day. However, it is still far from perfect.