The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Opinions

Thursday, 29 July 2010 14:17

I had not intended to go see The Sorcerer's Apprentice, but an excellent interview on the Slice of Sci-fi podcast with the film's director, Jon Turteltaub, piqued my interest. Add to that the enthusiasm that my wife has for anything Disney related (an enthusiasm I don't share) and I had to go see it.

The movie opens up presenting you with the back story about the wizard Merlin and his three apprentices. One of the apprentices, Horvath (Alfred Molina), joins Merlin's nemesis Morgana le Fay (Alice Krige), and Merlin is killed. The remaining two apprentices, Balthazar (Nicolas Cage) and his love Veronica (Monica Bellucci) battle Morgana and Horvath. Veronica ultimately sacrifices herself to allow her and Morgana to be trapped together inside a prison in the form of a nesting doll.

Balthazar spends the next thousand years searching for a descendant of Merlin who will have the power to destroy the imprisoned Morgana, finally ridding the world of her and the threat she poses. He finds it in the year 2000 when a ten year old boy wanders into Balthazar's New York store.

The back-story was the most disappointing part of this film, simply because it was too short. The battle between Merlin, Morgana, and the apprentices could easily have been its own film. I know that the movie was already longer than most Disney films (an hour and fifty minutes), but I wish that they could have given a little more time on the story's genesis.

My favorite part of the movie was the homage to the short story of the same name in Disney's Fantasia from which this movie was inspired. It's important to note that this film not "based" on that animation, but the scene near the middle of the film was the perfect tribute to it.

The hosts on the podcast that got me interested are not big Nicolas Cage fans, one even saying that he was “poison” to her. But I'm finding myself liking Cage more and more with each role he takes, this one being no exception. Cage comes across as someone who cares about his art and profession, but who doesn't take himself too seriously. Put him together with solid performers like Alfred Molina and Alice Krige, mix in an engaging story, and you have a great motion picture.

This movie was rated PG, and it would probably have been close to PG-13 for some mildly mature language and for a lot of mild violence. I'd be comfortable bringing any kid over 8 to see this.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice isn't going to win any awards, but I bet it'll make a lot of money for Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer. It's a good story told very well and generally a lot of fun to watch. The visuals are definitely going to be better on the big screen, but I think you'll enjoy this almost as much at home on DVD. I rated The Sorcerer's Apprentice 8 out of 10 on IMDB.