Film Review The Sorcerer's Apprentice 
US 2010. Cert: PG. 111 mins. Dir: Jon Turteltaub. Cast: Nicolas Cage, Alfred Molina, Jay Baruchel, Teresa Palmer, Toby Kebbell
Film Review: The Sorcerer's Apprentice
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Reunited with the director of National Treasure and recently back into roles that do him justice, Nicolas Cage takes a comical turn in this summer’s children’s blockbuster, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
Back in 740 AD Merlin left three apprentices in charge of keeping his sworn enemy, Morgana le Fey, trapped in The Grimhold. He also charged them with finding the Prime Merlinian, a gifted child who would one day be his replacement. When two of the apprentices fall in love, the other is left jealous and heartbroken, turning on his friends. Balthazar has searched for centuries to find the Prime Merlinian, never wavering from his quest until by chance he meets 10 year-old Dave. Unfortunately, on the same day his quest ends, renegade apprentice Maxim is freed and in order to contain him, Balthazar must imprison them both in an urn.
Ten years later and free from the urn, Balthazar must find Dave, train him up, capture Maxim and ensure Morgana Le Fey is defeated. Jay Baruchel plays nerdy physics enthusiast Dave with the same awkward charm he displayed in She’s Out Of My League. Unlike his rival face of the decade, Michael Cera, Baruchel isn’t typecast in similar roles, but like Cera seems to play each part with the same familiarity as the last.
Cage revels in Balthazar’s character, sympathetically playing the tragic love-lost card while enjoying the light-hearted action and comical banter his character has with Dave. Master of action villains Alfred Molina once again aptly tackles Maxim, while Toby Kebbell stars as his awkward bumbling assistant, “magician of the year” Drake Stone.
Like Van Helsing, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice seems to steal ideas and characters from various sources and pits mankind against that rather cliched threat of a rising army of the dead – still, there remain plenty of original ideas and an amusing homage to Disney’s classic, Fantasia, a loose plot base for The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, alongside an 18th century ballad. Dave’s geeky bravado also allows for some fantastic unexpected lines like “I’m not done – I brought a little science with me”.
Full of flash car chases, jewellery battles and neat tricks, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice follows the same format as the Potter films but compresses the action so that Dave rapidly progresses from student to master, from bumbling boy passing ‘friend or girlfriend’ notes to protective boyfriend. Balthazar’s advice “the stronger the man, the stronger the sorcerer” rings true, as Dave progressively finds his feet and discovers that the inkling we all have about Russian Dolls being quite sinister is actually accurate.
On general release in cinemas from 13 August
Posted on Friday 13th August 2010
Leo Owen
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