It seems that summer movies and Nicolas Cage have been synonymous over the years. While it still seems that it has been a long time since he has put out anything really worth seeing I still find myself seeing ‘gems’ like Kick-Ass and Next and Bangkok Dangerous thinking that it might be ever closer to something from his early career. With Sorcerer’s Apprentice on my summer lineup of movies, that has not changed.
Originally, the Sorcerer’s Apprentice was a German poem written in 1797. It was made famous by the 1940s Disney film, Fantasia. This idea is at the core of the movie but is in no way overused. Sorcerer’s Apprentice had a fun playful feel throughout which culminated at a brilliant recreation of the scene from Fantasia.
The modern version of Sorcerer’s Apprentice starts in 740 AD with Merlin the Magician and his three apprentices. There is strife amongst the apprentices however and Maxim Horvath (Alfred Molina) joins forces with the evil sorceress Morgana to attempt to kill Merlin and destroy the world. At the end of this battle, Merlin is killed and Morgana is locked away in a Grimhold in the form of a nesting doll. This is the beginning of Balthazar Blake’s (Nicolas Cage) quest to defeat all Morganians and trap them in layers of the nesting doll thus keeping the world safe until the prime Merlinian comes.
All this drama unfolds quickly, just in the beginning of the movie. We quickly fast forward to modern day and meet Dave (Jay Baruchel). We know Jay from some of my favorite movies like Knocked Up and Fanboys. Initially Dave is just a ten year old kid on a field trip who has a chance encounter with Balthazar where he discovers he is the Prime Merlinian. After more mystical action we are again fast forwarded to college Dave. He is an above average physics student attending NYU. He is quickly thrown into a world of magic and picks up his magical prowess fairly quickly.
While being slow to start I was surprised at how much I enjoyed Sorcerer’s Apprentice. This of course, might be because I did not expect much from Nick Cage, the most versatile actor of our time. Jay Baruchel was great as the slightly awkward Dave. His scenes with his love interest Becky (Teresa Palmer) were filled with a chemistry right on the edge of being unbelievable. But, on the same edge being right where we, the geek audience, wanted them to be. The look of the movie was great. It was fun and the special effects were beautiful. Sorcerer’s Apprentice succeeded because it made the unbelievable look great. It also did not take itself too seriously. It made fun of itself at numerous occasions and had some memorable one-liners.
While all the acting wasn’t super and the plot was slow to start I still think Sorcerer’s Apprentice was worth seeing. There was a lot of humor and definitely enough action and special effects to make it worthwhile. That’s why we’d like to give it a 7 on the It’s Geektime d10 of dancing brooms.