The Kidd Vs. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
CAUTION: SPOILERS AHEAD
If you’re expecting anything other than the typical Jerry Bruckheimer-produced, Jon Turteltaub-directed flick in the spirit of the NATIONAL TREASURE movies, that requires you to check logic and reason at the door, then you might want to stay away from Disney’s THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE, because it’s precisely that kind of movie. I only wish it had been called THE SORCERER and left the APPRENTICE aspect out of this movie, because it’s that element that never comes together throughout the film. You’ll get your fair share of entertainment from Nicolas Cage and Alfred Molina and a few other supporting roles, but everything built around Jay Baruchel felt like I was watching SHE’S OUT OF MY LEAGUE all over again, but with magic and sorcery involved – not a good combination.
The premise starts off simply enough. Back in 740 A.D., Merlin had trained 3 apprentices – Balthazar (Nicholas Cage, whose natural weirdness plays as a strength for the role), Veronica (the lovely Monica Bellucci), and Horvath (Alfred Molina shedding the shame of Disney’s earlier summer flop PRINCE OF PERSIA for a return to the type of villain he relishes).Merlin is murdered by a powerful sorceress named Morgana, with the help of Horvath, who betrays his master after being the odd man out in the Balthazar-Veronica-Horvath love triangle. Morgana plans to unleash a spell called The Rising, which would destroy the world at the hands of a zombie army. However, Veronica sacrifices herself, fusing herself and Morgana into the same body, allowing Balthazar to trap her and Horvath into a nesting doll, in order to prevent them from launching their plan. Now Balthazar must find the Prime Merlinian, who is suited to wear Merlin’s ring and learn as an apprentice, until they are ready to destroy Morgana and end the centuries-old threat.
Enter Jay Baruchel as the title character, and exit any enjoyable moments from the movie that require him to be on-screen. His extremely nerdy and painfully awkward demeanor may work in the right role and in short doses, but when it’s applied in this magical setting, it comes across more as whiny and annoying. Complete with attractive love interest Becky (Teresa Palmer, who seemingly brings together the best features from Scarlett Johansson and Naomi Watts), this heads right into the direction of the strange geek somehow landing the hot girl. Unfortunately, there’s no spark between the characters that’ll have you interested in anything surrounding their relationship. He’s not witty. He’s not good at conversation. His only strength seems to be in being unconfident and nervous all the time, with bits of sarcasm thrown in, hardly the attributes that an NYU college radio DJ would go for.
Their missing chemistry causes all of their interactions and love subplot to waste time that could be better used having skilled sorcerers fighting using their magical abilities, an area where THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE really takes off. The setting within the magical realm really opens up all sorts of possibilities, and it allows Nicholas Cage and Alfred Molina to really play up some slightly over-the-top characters – a quirky and eccentric sorcerer and his evil-at-all-costs nemesis. Molina’s introduction feels like a scene stolen directly from THE MUMMY, with Horvath forming from a large population of bugs set free from captivity, but once he takes human form, he really helps the movie go.
The back and forth between Cage and Molina is when APPRENTICE is at its best, from the sorcerer’s style of sword fighting, which has Balthazar wielding his own weapon as Horvath jousts from afar, using his magical prowess to control his steel. We get all sorts of plasma and fire balls being tossed around, wolves being created from calendar pictures, and birds coming to life from metal structural decor attached to skyscrapers. And all of that happens before the fire-breathing dragon arrives on the scene.
The action-packed sorcerer showdowns, in addition to the chase sequences, play extremely well, including a pretty cool set-up that involves Baruchel and Cage being trapped in a mirror world where everything is visually backwards as it’d be in a reflection. But, for every entertaining scene such as that, you get stuck with a forced Disney insertion of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice portion of FANTASIA, this time done with live-action. That means mops capable of all types of movements in the middle of a flooded room, and it has the feel of something thrown into the movie for the sole purpose of reminding the audience that a very similar scene played out in another Disney film. If you stay through the credits, you’ll get a much more fitting nod to the Mickey Mouse classic, unlike this few minutes jammed into the middle of THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE for no relevant reason whatsoever.
The real standout of THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE is Toby Kebbell, previously in Guy Ritchie’s little-seen ROCKNROLLA. Kebbell’s role as the Criss Angel-like entertainer Drake Stone, a sorcerer himself whose moved into a more prosperous job, is an excellent addition to the cast, as his cocky celebrity attitude is a nice change from the whimpering Baruchel, whose character’s name is even lame (Dave Stutler). If only Kebbell’s character was the apprentice we got to follow throughout the film, we might have had a far more interesting, far more entertaining movie. But when THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE is built around the weakest link in the film and a character that we lose interest in watching rather quickly, you’re left with a movie that isn’t very good, particularly when the lead is involved.
There is plenty of fun to be had when Cage and Molina can really let themselves go and allow Balthazar and Horvath to breathe… but that life is quickly sucked out of THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE by Baruchel. If you can put up with the same antics you’ve seen him a part of in other movies, then you might be able to tolerate your way through APPRENTICE. However, if you’ve grown to find him as annoying as I have, you’re going to have to suffer through a lot of his worthless performance and an unexciting love story subplot, in order to get to the good stuff with Cage and Molina. That choice is yours to make, but, while the Cage and Molina material is the best of the film, I didn’t find it that good that it’d be worth sitting through a lot of Jay Baruchel. It’s too bad that the sorcerer needed to have some type of apprentice, because I’m certain he would have been better off alone… at least for the purposes of this movie.
I actually enjoyed it but I do agree with you that they could have picked someone else for the apprentice or not had an apprentice.