The Sorcerer's Apprentice

(2010)

Directed by

Jon Turteltaub

Review by Terry Plucknett

Posted - 8/18/10

It’s loud, it’s predictable, it’s cheesy at times.  To paraphrase Dennis Green, “It was what I thought it was.”  And I loved every minute of it.

Back in the 700’s AD, the great sorcerer Merlin had three apprentices: Balthazar Blake (Nicolas Cage), Maxim Horvath (Alfred Molina), and Veronica (Monica Bellucci).  In fighting the bad guy Morgana (Alice Krige), Maxim betrays his fellow apprentices, which causes Merlin to be killed and Veronica to be trapped with Morgana in a device that is guarded for 1000 years by Balthazar as he searches for “The Chosen One” that will inherit Merlin’s ring and defeat Morgana.  This long awaited person is found in Dave (Jay Baruchel), a nerdy science geek.  As Balthazar teaches Dave the ways of the sorcerer, they fight against Maxim who wants to unlock the evil Morgana and begin a reign of evil that will end the world as we know it.  Through all this, Dave also finds time to woo the girl of his dreams (Teresa Palmer).

Have we seen this story before?  Of course we have.  Is the plot predictable?  Definitely.  However, I never understood the concept that states a movie is no good if it does not show complete originality.  It is just unrealistic.  Not everyone can be Christopher Nolan.  This movie was fun, witty, clever, exciting.  Was the quality affected by the fact that I knew exactly where the movie was going and how it was going to end?  Not at all!

What made this movie so fun was the performances by the two lead actors.  Nicolas Cage does his best Nicolas Cage impression a la Gone in 60 Seconds which is always so much fun to see.  Add Jay Baruchel to the mix, who is another actor that only knows how to play himself ever since Almost Famous (HE TOUCHED THIS PEN!), and you have a very unlikely combination that is as awkwardly fun as you can imagine.

This film is everything it looks like it is.  So what it comes down to is if you like this type of movie, you will like this movie.  If you don’t, you won’t.  I like this type of movie, so I liked this film.  It is what you think it is.

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