This weekend, I got to see The Sorcerer's Apprentice, the latest Disney released film from producer Jerry Bruckheimer. The plot of the movie is pretty much textbook Bruckheimer, like his film Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time which was released earlier in the year. While it's not quite as good as Prince of Persia, The Sorcerer's Apprentice is still not bad.
The premise is simple enough. Dave Stutler (Played in his youth by Jake Cherry), is a kid who one day wandered into a bizarre shop, run by an out of the ordinary man named Balthazar Blake (Played by Nicolas Cage), a sorcerer. Blake offered him a mysterious ring shaped like a dragon, and after a bit of unfortunate mishaps, Dave set free Blake's arch-nemesis Maxim Horvath (Played by Alfred Molina). Cut to ten years later where Dave (Now played by Jay Baruchel) is in college, and has become quite the physics nerds, and fallen in love with an old classmate (Played by Teresa Palmer). But now, Balthazar is back, and tells Dave that the ring means he is the Prime-Merlinian, a powerful wizard who will become the successor of Merlin himself. Dave becomes Balthazar's apprentice, and together the two must stop Horvath, and an evil sorceress from, you guessed it, taking over the world.
So, yeah, story is been there, done that. Awkward hero and scary mentor, threat of global apocalypse, simplistic action plot, silly comic relief, awkward romance, it's all there. But, it's what the movie does with that is why it's so fun, and the action is actually fun to watch. Fast Paced, Well staged, and I have no problems with the pacing, except for the prologue which feels pretty rushed, and the ending which feels rushed and kind of abrupt as well.
Performances in the movie are fun too. Jay Baruchel and Nicolas Cage's chemistry on screen is so much fun, not only that, but they're good on their own as well. I want to give some serious credit to Alfred Molina as well, who's practically made a career out of being a scene stealer in any movie he's in. The rest of the cast, while not fully developed, most of them are fun to watch.
The tech design of this movie is cool too. The visuals are nice to look at, the sound mix and design is great, and the production design is also cleverly done. Nice cinematography too, and Trevor Rabin provides a typical, yet not too shabby orchestral score.
The Sorcerer's Apprentice is far from perfect. It's no Inception or Toy Story 3, but if you're looking for a fun, entertaining popcorn flick to spend two hours at the cinema, then this one isn't a bad choice.
I give it **1/2 out of ****
The premise is simple enough. Dave Stutler (Played in his youth by Jake Cherry), is a kid who one day wandered into a bizarre shop, run by an out of the ordinary man named Balthazar Blake (Played by Nicolas Cage), a sorcerer. Blake offered him a mysterious ring shaped like a dragon, and after a bit of unfortunate mishaps, Dave set free Blake's arch-nemesis Maxim Horvath (Played by Alfred Molina). Cut to ten years later where Dave (Now played by Jay Baruchel) is in college, and has become quite the physics nerds, and fallen in love with an old classmate (Played by Teresa Palmer). But now, Balthazar is back, and tells Dave that the ring means he is the Prime-Merlinian, a powerful wizard who will become the successor of Merlin himself. Dave becomes Balthazar's apprentice, and together the two must stop Horvath, and an evil sorceress from, you guessed it, taking over the world.
So, yeah, story is been there, done that. Awkward hero and scary mentor, threat of global apocalypse, simplistic action plot, silly comic relief, awkward romance, it's all there. But, it's what the movie does with that is why it's so fun, and the action is actually fun to watch. Fast Paced, Well staged, and I have no problems with the pacing, except for the prologue which feels pretty rushed, and the ending which feels rushed and kind of abrupt as well.
Performances in the movie are fun too. Jay Baruchel and Nicolas Cage's chemistry on screen is so much fun, not only that, but they're good on their own as well. I want to give some serious credit to Alfred Molina as well, who's practically made a career out of being a scene stealer in any movie he's in. The rest of the cast, while not fully developed, most of them are fun to watch.
The tech design of this movie is cool too. The visuals are nice to look at, the sound mix and design is great, and the production design is also cleverly done. Nice cinematography too, and Trevor Rabin provides a typical, yet not too shabby orchestral score.
The Sorcerer's Apprentice is far from perfect. It's no Inception or Toy Story 3, but if you're looking for a fun, entertaining popcorn flick to spend two hours at the cinema, then this one isn't a bad choice.
I give it **1/2 out of ****