| Review by Scott Weitz |
July 13, 2010 |
 (2 1/2 stars) |
109 minutes |
Rated: PG |
 As the belabored backstory goes, Cage's sorcerer Balthazar Blake was one of three apprentices under their mentor, the famed Merlin back in ancient Britain. When Merlin was betrayed by his selfish protege Maxim Horvath (Alfred Molina) and fell in battle to the dreaded Morgana (Alice Krige), Merlin charged Blake to find a successor to protect mankind. With Morgana and Horvath imprisoned in a magical nesting doll along with Blake's love Veronica (Monica Bellucci) for the next 1300 years until the Prime Merlinian apprentice is found, Earth's destruction by Morgana's army of the undead is forestalled. Blake searches through the ages, across Africa, India and the globe to find the destined child to join him on this mission, but to no avail. Jump ahead to New York circa 2000, when an insecure boy, David Stutler, on the verge of his first puppy love gets lost on a field trip and stumbles into Blake's shop of magical curiosities. Certain that destiny trumps coincidence, Blake gives Merlin's dragon ring to try on, and immediately the jeweled creature curls around David's finger and the search for the Prime Merlinian has finally ended. Of course, now the real battle to defeat the evil of imprisoned Morgana only begins.
If that sounds like a lot of backstory and destiny to follow, don't worry: Turtletaub will repeat it for you several times in the first half of the film. Sadly, these historical revisions — often illustrated in cool ancient book art which never comes to pass on-screen — aren't necessarily to sell the plot as this reluctant boy hero journey has been told dozens of times before in more imaginative fantasies. Worse, the story stutter-steps to let ten years pass so the unpopular boy wimp can grow up into the unpopular twentysomething nerd in the guise of Baruchel. As history and destiny continue to fold back on themselves, just as Blake enlists David to be his new apprentice, David reunites with his long unrequited love from elementary school, Becky (Teresa Palmer). Plot complication #3A kicks in as David's tutelage by Blake is constantly undercut by the youth's insecurities — meant to offer more comedic fodder than they achieve — as David fails to master the magical arts or win the girl of his dreams.
 Meanwhile the imprisoned villains escape thanks to David's well-meant incompetence and Horvath plots to steal and use the strength of his minions to release Morgana and start the apocalypse by raising all the dead dark sorcerers of the past. If you're thinking you've seen elements of all this in films like GHOSTBUSTERS, EXCALIBUR and the HARRY POTTER series, your insight serves you well. No less than five individuals are credited with the screen story and script for THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE, and who knows how many more wordsmiths dipped their cursors into the brew to concoct this overwrought story. Yet with all those writers at work, far too much of the script plays like the greatest hits of previous films: callow hero gets dragged to meet his destiny, making himself the target of enemies who must destroy our hero before he realizes his full powers. Harry Skywalker and the Cinematic Homages powered by high-performance cars.
The cast fends off these scripted shortcomings to their best ability, though Cage seems tired of dancing to the same tune by now, and who can blame him? His shaggy hairdo is a vast improvement over his long locks seen in CON AIR, but otherwise his costume and Turtletaub's camera angle poses attempt to fill in Blake's lacking character depth. Baruchel is engaging as David, but was given much more to work with in past films like TROPIC THUNDER and SHE'S OUT OF MY LEAGUE and got many more laughs accordingly. Ultimately David is written as too insecure and emotionally cautious for his own good, so his final step up into hero duty isn't dramatically plausible. Molina adds menace and gravitas to the heavy Horvath, though the script never gives us any insight into his character beyond the plot points he serves. One day a mainstream filmmaker will give rock-solid actor Alfred Molina a truly solid role he can sink his acting teeth into, but for now this quest continues. Teresa Palmer possesses the requisite charm as David's love Becky, but he's so bumbling as a suitor that the two never get a chance to truly spark up a believable, satisfying comedic romance. Monica Bellucci and Alice Krige are woefully underused in wispy roles based mostly on appearance and attitude, never presenting (or having been given) fully realized supporting characters. One can't help but suspect much of their characters either fell on the cutting room floor or were backspaced out of the screenplay, if ever typed up in the first place.
What remains is lighthearted, lightheaded entertainment, a fun if uninspired summer diversion to escape the heat with the family for a while. Flying steel gargoyles wing away from the Empire State Building, hunk-of-junk cars transform (sorry, naughty word!) into sleek hot rods, and a sorcery student learns to fling plasma bolts at his foes. Not much new is gained while watching, but little is risked for your box office dollar either as this Bruckheimer/Turtletaub venture reclaims fantasy adventure in the name (if not the greatest tradition) of Disney once again. A few incantations and waves of the wand over its hackneyed script might have improved the fortunes of THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE, but this middling magic spell may entertain even if it doesn't quite do the trick. |
