Review of The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010) by Adam F — 07 Mar 2013

"The Sorcerer's Apprentice" has a likeable cast and there are a lot of smart moments but there are also a lot of mediocre segments that should have been trimmed or re-written. Jay Baruchel as "Dave Stutler" is a charismatic protagonist that doesn't really believe in himself but isn't reluctant to become hero which is a nice change. Most of the time with these movies the protagonist inexplicably constantly complains that the power that be have chosen the wrong one, he/she just wants to be normal and wants to return to their boring life. While there is a brief moment where this does happen he quickly smartens up and remembers that anyone would kill to have the powers he displays. Nicholas cage is also effective as "Balthazar" and he has a lot of good moments with his nemesis. Some of the supporting characters also add a nice comedic touch to the film like "Drake Stone" and Teresa Palmer is a likeable love interest that has some pretty good chemistry with "Dave".

For all of these interesting characters we also get a bunch of comedic buffoons that you wish would just leave the screen as quickly as possible so we can get back to the main plot. We get a sidekick dog that adds nothing to the story besides fart and pee jokes and "Dave's" roommate feels very unnecessary (did they just add him to have a funny fat black guy? because that's what it feels like). "Maxim Hovarth" works well as a villain but the "ultimate bad guy" is pretty generic and has little personality. It's not even that the movie is necessarily bad because there are a lot of cool and fun moments (like the use of tesla coils throughout the film), there's a romantic sub plot that works and is not only convincing but helps ground the story but there are also other moments that feel silly (the training montage where "Dave" constantly hits himself in the groin for example) so the movie is constantly going back and forth between inspired action and cool characters and lame pratfalls and generic plot points you've seen many times before.

Overall you'll have a mixed reaction to "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" and if you're going in just for the segment inspired by the "Fantasia" short, you'll be disappointed. For every moment that doesn't work there are about 1.5 elements that are good though so it just nudges itself to a recommended view though if you've seen a lot of fantasy films you'll have seen a lot of this before and you'd better keep your expectations low to enjoy it. (Blu-ray, march 3, 2013).