Disney’s The Sorcerers Apprentice is a Jerry Bruckheimer and Jon Turteltaub Film. Starring in this comedy-adventure are Nicolas Cage (National Treasure, Kick Ass), Jay Baruchel (How to Train Your Dragon), Alfred Molina SpiderMan II, Prince of Persia) Teresa Palmer and Monica Bellucci. The cast brings to life an old 1940s Disney classic.
The movie starts out in Britain, the year 740 A.D. where an epic battle is taking place between Merlin (James Stephens) and Morgana Le Fay (Alice Krige). Included in this terrible conflict are Merlin’s interning sorcerers Balthazar Blake (Cage) and his love Veronica (Bellucci). They are trying to stop Morgana from obtaining the spell that would enslave mankind. With the battle nearly won, in comes Maxim Horvath (Molina) to betray Merlin and his fellow sorcerers. His duty is to Morgana and aids her in retrieving the spell from Merlin. Veronica sacrifices herself to stop Morgana from obtaining the spell by trapping Morgana’s soul within herself, but Morgana begins to fight her way out of Veronica, Blake saves the woman he loves by trapping them both within a magic nesting doll called a Grimhold. Centuries later, many other sorcerers tried to free Morgana to find themselves also trapped within the nesting doll. Blake was also able to hold Horvath within the Grimhold. However, he cannot free the woman he loves, or defeat Morgana unless he finds the Prime Merlinian, a boy who is the successor of Merlin. So here is where Blake’s journey begins to look for the boy who bares the soul of Merlin.
Fast forward to present day New York, where 10 year-old Dave is on a field trip with his class when a well-intended love note takes to the wind, with Dave eagerly following behind to catch it. Young Dave enters an old antiquities shop and finds Blake who, after centuries of searching for the Prime Merlinian, finds him, by an act of coincidence. It was this same act of coincidence, that accidentally freed Horvath from one inescapable prison to another–this time, Blake was there to keep him company for ten years. After ten years in the urn that trapped them, Blake and Horvath are released and Dave (Baruchel), now a nerdy college student is Blake’s and the world’s only hope at stopping Horvath from releasing Morgana and thereby thwarting her plans to raise the un-dead to enslave all of mankind.
Now if this seems like a quick and in-your-face-movie plot, it was. Repetitive, yes. Considering that Jerry Bruckheimer and Nicolas Cage have a pretty consistent film history together: The Rock, Con Air, Gone in 60 seconds, National Treasure series; mostly all of Bruckheimer’s films have been very successful, especially the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.
I am trying to understand why Nicolas Cage is featured in many key film roles? I’d give Cage props for good acting in Kick-Ass. Maybe it was because Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz) made up much of the duo’s strength in the movie that I was curiously excited to see Cage in it. But nah, he still maintains the same blank facial expressions and fails to give any emotional rise to his characters (like in Ghost Rider, Con Air, etc.) and as the sorcerer Balthazar Blake. There really wasn’t an on screen chemistry between Cage and Jay Baruchel–who was as much to blame for his performance in the movie along with the shared amount of failed one-liners.
Baruchel’s annoying doubts about his fate as a powerful sorcerer only served for ill, short scripted, and wasted misguidance while watching him chase around some girl when he has the power of Merlin at his fingertips. Molina got a raw deal, I mean his talent is so much greater than his role as the sorcerer Horvath–at least he got to wander around looking fierce in his Bowler hat and wielding pimp cane-ish-wand-stick-thing. No matter, movies like these will still attract big crowds, continue to make millions upon millions, billions even and why not? There really isn’t much on television these days.
Pros: The CGI and other striking effects of the film (the steel eagle and the dragon) was impressive enough to make-up for the failed story-line. Great reverence to the Sorcerer’s Apprentice (1940) by including the part made famous by Mickey Mouse. In fact, if not for the stunning effects in this movie, I would have turned it off immediately after I saw Merlin go down in the most insulting way. Cons: The bad acting..and Jay Baruchel’s annoying voice, one that makes it seem like he’s getting ready to crack puberty. The awful one-liners. The bad jokes. Too many coulda’s, woulda’s, and shoulda’s.
AIDY
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First, Happy Thanksgiving! I’m thankful you are my Blogamie.
Second, you’re in luck. I watched the movie, 2 days ago.
I, naively, expected the movie to have a horror undertone. Then, I realized it was made by Disney. My horror-movie-loving bubble got burst.
Bruckheimer isn’t the one constantly casting Cage. It’s Cage that is forced to star in as many movies as possible to pay off his IRS debts. Since Cage is a PG-13 favorite, adding The Sorcerer’s Apprentice to his resume won’t hurt him.
But, oh my, the dialog was so weak and Jay Baruchel’s voice a nuisance. He reminded me a bit of Fran Drescher in the Nanny. Remember her?
Hope you’re doing well. You made this site look ever better.
Hey now! So good to see you again! Oh how I have missed you <3
I agree! I was so annoyed by this movie. I too, had great expectations about it and after the first segment of the film I was like, wtf? I endured just so I can write this review about it. Haha, about cage paying off the IRS is a good one! That very well may be it
He is a terrible actor. The only movie I enjoyed watching him in was ‘Leaving Las Vegas.’ And Baruchel’s voice just made me so, so…I don not have a word for it but yup! Fran Drescher is right on the money. I wonder if that’s his mom?
Thanks for the complement on the blog. Changed themes. I check on you at your place and sent you an email a bit ago. Really missed you -hugs- Hope to see more of you soon and hope you are well my friend.
I’ve seen only the first ten minutes of the sorcerer’s apprentice. Couldn’t go any further. Life is too short. So my post here is more a response to your claim that Nic Cage “is a terrible actor”.
I thought it would be difficult to stand by him after finding so many of his latest movies to be so bad (except maybe for Bad Lieutenant)… And yet it’s not. I blame his financial problems for movies such as the apprentice, and not his acting abilities.
Would the Coen brothers (Raising Arizona), Martin Scorcese (Bringing out the dead) and Ridley Scott (Matchstick Men) have cast him if he was a terrible actor ?
In my experience, all the people who think he’s a terrible actor are people who haven’t seen 4 movies :
- Vampire’s kiss
- Leaving Las Vegas
- The weather man
- Adaptation
And in my experience, they’ve all changed their mind after watching them.
You’ve already seen “Leaving Las Vegas” and, what do you know, you’ve enjoyed it ! Something tells me you haven’t seen the three others, and you should really give it a try.
“Vampire’s kiss” is a movie in which (as stated in interviews and the dvd commentary track) he’s improvising almost all the way, and I believe some of his ideas are pure genius. Of course, his acting there is completely outrageous, and I can understand how some people can’t stand it…
But “The Weather Man” is the complete opposite. A desperate film about failure and self loathing (commonly mistaken for a comedy), constantly drowned in freezing shades of blue, and in which Cage is surprisingly subtle and moving. Then again, starring alongside Hope Davis and Michael Caine can only help…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD6EmQaT-8s&feature=related
In “Adaptation”, Cage plays two different parts, and both are very different than what he ever did before… and since, unfortunately. Also, the whole movie is about the writing process. If you haven’t seen it, and if only for that, you should definitely check it out…
(If you want to know more about Adaptation, this interview is quite interesting :
http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/2253 )
Before his financial problems, Nic Cage not only used to make exciting and interesting choices as an actor, but also as a producer. During the commentary of Vampire’s kiss, he keeps referring to his fascination for the original “Nosferatu”, the German silent movie, and ten years later he produced “Shadow of the vampire”, an interesting take on the making of Nosferatu, with John Malkovitch and Willem Dafoe. You don’t produce such a film to make money, but out of passion, and that’s also what I like about him.
He used to be passionate about what he did, and I do think he can act great when given the chance. Now all he needs are other movies like “The Weather Man” and “Adaptation” to make good use of this talent again.
Okay. I will give Cage credit for his performances in the movies you listed. “Leaving Las Vegas” being my most favorite of them all. “The Weather Man,” “Adaptation,” and “Vampire’s Kiss,” was okay. I have seen them all if anything, just for the reason to see if he finally delivers a worthy performance. Granted, his latest films are not…good. His pending tax troubles may very well force him to take less popular roles–still, it is never an excuse for bad acting. Period. Passion for a work, on the other hand, I have to agree with you. Thank you for the engaging response. I look forward to more of our discussions
Au revoir!
I thought it was a good movie. Sure, Jay Baruchel has an annoying voice; but thats part of his character and he can’t help how his voice sounds. As for Nicolas Cage’s acting, it wasn’t the best but it wasn’t the worst either. I’ve seen some pretty lame movies. The acting wasn’t as horrible as everyone says, i don’t know why everyone overreacted.
As far as movie criticisms go, it is easy to be bedazzled by Hollywood special effects. The story was broken, as well as the dialogue between the characters. For a totally successful movie experience, a movie has to have all these elements for an effective movie. Not overdone special effects that distract from the actual storyline of a film. Also, actors that can effectively convey the story. It has to “feel” believable, even though it has nothing to do with reality.
I enjoyed the movie. I like it more than Harry Potter. I don’t know why.
The movie had brilliant special effects. It was easy to get caught up in them
LIke Nicolas in this interpretation)
Nice fairy tail with good ending)
Hey I love this movie! Nicholas Cage rocks! I hope there’s a part 2 of this movie!