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Director Jon Turteltaub, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and actor Nicolas Cage have proven to be a winning team for Disney. Their crowd-pleasing National Treasure franchise offers just the right combination of adventure and laughs—with a hearty serving of American history on the side. Though they’ve traded history for legend in their latest project, the adventure and laughs are still in abundance in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, a family-friendly adventure that mixes National Treasure with a little bit of Harry Potter and just a smidgen of Fantasia.
Still, you might be tempted to give up on The Sorcerer’s Apprentice during the first few minutes and search of something a little less complicated—because the film opens with an overwhelming amount of exposition. The rambling narration tells the story of Merlin’s three apprentices: Balthazar (Nicolas Cage), Veronica (Monica Bellucci), and Horvath (Alfred Molina). All three were trusted with Merlin’s secrets, but Horvath betrayed his master and joined with Merlin’s enemy, Morgana (Alice Krige). Veronica sacrificed herself to help Balthazar imprison their enemies—and, for more than a thousand years since, Balthazar has been searching for the Prime Merlinian, who will save the world from Morgana’s followers.
There’s a bunch of background information to process—so don’t be surprised if your kids’ eyes start to glaze over. Just pass them the popcorn and tell them to stick with it. Things eventually pick up—and the story finally makes it to the present day.
Now, Balthazar has found his man: NYU physics nerd Dave (Jay Baruchel). But he doesn’t have a whole lot of time to train his reluctant new apprentice—because Horvath is set on releasing Morgana and unleashing an unspeakable horror that could destroy the world.
Unfortunately, the story isn’t as clever as National Treasure, with its puzzles to solve and treasure maps to follow. In fact, the story doesn’t make a whole lot of sense at all—so it’s best if you try to not to think about it too much. Still, the fast-paced fights and chase scenes will keep audiences entertained—and there’s plenty of humor to keep things light and fun. There’s a touch of romance, too, as Baruchel reprises his role in She’s Out of My League—only with Teresa Palmer filling in as the babe of his dreams.
Mostly, though, Baruchel spends most of the movie in hysterics—so much so, in fact, that he makes Cage seem calm and collected in comparison. Dave is definitely a different kind of hero—scrawny, awkward, and clumsy. But, despite the fact that he’s the same character that Baruchel always plays, he has a certain everygeek charm that will make you like him anyway.
Cage, meanwhile, is clearly on a roll this year—because, like Big Daddy in Kick-Ass, Balthazar fits the eccentric star perfectly. He’s intense and enjoyably unhinged—with a decent hair style, too—and he somehow manages to make crazy look totally cool.
As long as you can overlook the confusing story, you’ll enjoy the pleasantly hokey, popcorn-ready action and adventure of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. It may not be a huge success, but I wouldn’t mind if Disney chose to continue the series—because this Apprentice shows some promise as a fun summer franchise.
Blu-ray Review:
While some movies overdo it on their Blu-ray releases, loading the disc with long-winded extras and all kinds of fluff, Disney’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice gets it just right.
The Blu-ray release features just a handful of shorter, more manageable making-of featurettes. There’s Magic in the City, which shows how Jon Turteltaub and the rest of the cast and crew strove to make New York City a character in the film. The Science of Sorcery focuses on the magic, with the cast members talking about how ridiculous they felt (and looked) while doing their job. Making Magic Real takes the magic to the next step, exploring the film’s practical effects—and showing how the visual effects team made everything look real. Fantasia: Reinventing a Classic offers a closer look at that iconic Fantasia-inspired scene—and, after watching it, you’ll never see the scene the same way again.
While the longer features are all quite interesting, though, the real fun comes from the shorter features—like the wildly entertaining outtake reel or The Fashionable Drake Stone, which explores Toby Kebbell’s character. Even the deleted scenes (which are typically pretty dull and pointless) are worth watching. And Wolves and Puppies, a short feature on the animals used in the film, is just plain adorable.
While many Blu-ray releases include all kinds of extras that only an obsessive fan would really care about, the special features included with The Sorcerer’s Apprentice are often as entertaining as the film itself. So after you finish watching the film, be sure to take some time to check out a few of the short extras.
