Every Little Thing He Does is Magic
“Sorcerer’s Apprentice” a tasty slice of summer blockbuster goodness
Let’s talk for a second about the pink elephant that’s been hanging over the summer movie season so far. It’s not been very good. This year’s fare has run the gamut from forgettable (Iron Man 2) to unnecessary (Robin Hood) to pretty damn dreadful (Sex and the City 2). For my money, a big part of this is owed to the fact that summer films aren’t fun anymore. That’s certainly not to make some argument about how commercial they’ve become, because they’ve been commercial since Star Wars came out over thirty years ago. The trouble is that they’re now such stone-faced, joyless affairs that even the bombastic ridiculousness of Independence Day almost seems to harken back to a quainter, more innocent time.
It’s appropriate then that The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is the brainchild of Jerry Bruckheimer, one of the holdovers from the action boom of the mid-to-late 1990s. Bruckheimer has always made ridiculous movies (often with Apprentice star Nicholas Cage, no less), but there’s a giddy sense of fun about them, which is why it’s understandable when his production company churns out hit after hit. Here he re-teams with director John Turtletaub (the National Treasure) films for a pseudo-update of the sketch of same name that appeared in Disney’s Fantasia years ago. However, the connection begins with the title and pretty much ends with a brief, clever scene that harkens back to the original.
The update is concerned with other things, and let me just say now that no, Cage’s latest hairpiece is not among them. Technically, he’s not even the main character; his Balthazar is the titular sorcerer, but the real hero is David (Jay Baruchel). The film kicks off with a prologue in which we learn that Balthazar was himself an apprentice to Merlin once, and that he, Horvath (Alfred Molina) and Veronica (Monica Bellucci) were once a sort of magical crimefighting team. There was a falling out between Balthazar and Horvath, and long story short, Balthazar trapped Horvath, Victoria, the evil sorceress Morgana (Alice Krige) and many other evil sorcerers in a nesting doll, waiting for the day when the Prime Merlinian (Merlin’s descendant) would arrive and defeat Morgana for good. Needless to say, David fits the bill and enters into magical training, while also trying to woo his childhood crush, Becky (Teresa Palmer).
If this sounds unwieldy to you, don’t worry. Apprentice is less concerned with plot as it is with montages of David getting hit in the crotch while trying to master the art of generating plasma balls or accidentally setting things on fire. That said, it’s not as cheap an action-comedy as many like it. Much like the National Treasure franchise, the film understand that it’s a light entertainment, and that its plot contrivances are beyond hokey (though there’s nothing here quite on the level of “I’m going to kidnap the President of the United States”). The film is surprisingly clever at times, such as in one sequence where a mirror spell is cast, sending Balthazar and David into a reverse world; the way in which they escape is the film’s best special effect. It doesn’t hurt that Cage and Baruchel have excellent chemistry together, or that the romantic subplot takes up just enough time to be satisfying without weighing the film down.
Apprentice also glides on its willingness to laugh at its own silliness. Cage chews scenery like his life is depending on it, but it’s a moderated chewing; this is no Wicker Man. Molina follows suit as an excellent foil, playing Horvath as just a bit fey and, rightly, almost bored of fighting Balthazar; they’ve been at it for centuries and have probably seen just about everything. More than anything, though, this is Baruchel’s coming out party as a leading man after several memorable background roles in films from Knocked Up to his excellent turn in Million Dollar Baby. Given the reins of a Disney probably-franchise, he proves himself more than capable. The film is a good one to emerge from, as it’s a sweet summer confection that’ll leave audiences satisfied, one where the line “I am a sorcerer and you are my apprentice” isn’t as much of a groaner as it deserves to be.
Rating: 3/4 stars
Posted by Dominick Mayer on Jul 14, 2010 @ 1:13 pm
