“The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” reunites director Jon Turteltaub with actor Nicolas Cage, who had both previously worked on the underrated “National Treasure” films. While those films had been fun and full of adventure, it felt like those were the elements that were missing from their latest effort. This film isn’t completely lacking in those areas, but sadly, they seem to have taken a backseat to the special effects.
The story begins with a prologue explaining that long ago the sorcerer Merlin had three apprentices: Balthazar (Nicolas Cage), Horvath (Alfred Molina), and Veronica (Monica Bellucci). Horvath betrayed the others and turned to the side of Morgana Le Fay (Alice Krige), an evil sorceress bent on enslaving humanity. But before she is able to do that, Balthazar manages to entrap her and Horvath in a grimhold or nesting doll, after which, he goes on a quest to seek out the heir to Merlin’s powers.
Several centuries later, a young boy, Dave (Jake Cherry), happens upon an antique shop run by Balthazar. This is obviously no coincidence, because after a quick test with Merlin’s ring, Balthazar determines that Dave is Merlin’s heir, otherwise known as the Prime Merlinian. While at the shop, Dave accidentally unleashes Horvath from the grimhold, but once again, with some quick thinking from Balthazar, he is soon trapped in an urn that imprisons its victims for ten years. The only problem is that Balthazar had to trap himself as well to get Horvath inside.
Ten years later, Dave (Jay Baruchel), is a grown-up physics nerd who runs into the girl he loved from elementary school, Becky (Teresa Palmer). It is also at this time that Balthazar and Horvath are released from the urn. Horvath sets out to find the grimhold in order to release Morgana while Balthazar goes in search of Dave so that he can teach him to become a great sorcerer for the purpose of stopping Horvath. It becomes a race to see who can complete their mission first.
About halfway through this film, I was surprised that it had gotten as knocked around as it had been. I was close to recommending it because it was an interesting, entertaining film with some good special effects. However, it was also about halfway through that it started to get dogged down by those same special effects as it becomes inundated with them, basically hitting you over the head over and over with them every few seconds.
Because of this, the story seems to get lost after awhile, seemingly becoming somewhat of an afterthought or merely a springboard for the special effects. It slowly became less and less entertaining as the effects continued to increase right up to the obligatory final battle between good and evil. Speaking of the final battle, it was just plain silly, and inexplicable. Dave, who has shown that he’s not that good of a sorcerer at all, suddenly has amazing powers. He must have been practicing quite a lot when the cameras weren’t looking.
It’s not that the special effects were bad, some of the sequences were actually quite interesting, including a car chase through the streets of New York City and a scene that pays homage to the famous sorcerer’s apprentice scene from “Fantasia.” For the latter scene, Dave is trying to clean up his laboratory by bringing mops and other cleaning materials to life, but, just like Mickey all those years ago, he loses control of the situation. This part provides a nice little piece of nostalgia for kids and parents alike.
Nicolas Cage, who usually hams it up on the screen, is pretty good here as Balthazar. He’s believable as someone who has been at this a long time and also when he’s in full-on teacher mode. Jay Baruchel does a decent job as a kid dealing with the fact that he has to help save the world. You might remember him as the voice of the hero in “How to Train Your Dragon,” so he’s had experience with the whole “youngster-who-has-to-save-the-day” thing. The best performance of the film comes from Alfred Molina, who brings a bit of class and dignity to it. He projects evil so well with just his looks and mannerisms, providing the needed believability of the antagonist.
I wish the film had been able to stay entertaining all the way through without becoming over-reliant on the special effects, but luckily the performances are able to save it from becoming a total disaster. It’s strange to have a film have so much magic within and yet ultimately not have enough of the right kind of magic to make it work.
2.5/4 stars.
You can read this and other movie reviews in my column at The Richmond Examiner.