Review by Doug Cooper
Stars Nicolas Cage, Jay Baruchel, Alfred Molina, Monica Bellucci, Alice Krige, Jake Cherry, Teresa Palmer, Jake Cherry
Written by Lawrence Konner, Mark Rosenthal,
Matt Lopez, Doug Miro & Carlo Bernard
Certification UK PG | US PG
Runtime 111 minutes
Directed by Jon Turteltaub
Oh dear, Jerry Bruckheimer isn't having a very good summer is he? The uber-producer's Prince of Persia didn't do the business expected of it a couple of months ago and now this formulaic fantasy has received a lukewarm response in the US too. He's probably not bothered, though. After all, he's got the fourth Pirates out next summer and that should restore his fortunes – providing audiences have forgiven him for the joyless and execrable experiences that 2 and 3 were.
The Sorcerer's Apprentice will hit all the right notes for kids, however. It's fast moving and crammed full of incident and CGI effects, characters morphing from objects and into other characters, swooping camerawork, flying mechanical dragons, and not least an homage to the march of the broomsticks sequence from Disney's Fantasia (1940), from which this movie received its inspiration. Shame, though, that it isn't 10 minutes long though like its predecessor. It's padded out with the story of Dave, who we first see in 2000 as a nine-year-old, and who mistakenly wanders into a magician's lair in New York and encounters dishevelled and unkempt Balthazar (Cage, playing it dull and straight). The tyke accidentally drops an urn, releasing the tyrannical force of Horvath (Molina, giving his scenes some welcome oomph).
Ten years later, Horvath's dark power is unleashed again and Dave (Baruchel), now a gangly and whiny-voiced 19-year-old, is a reluctant apprentice to Balthazar, awkwardly learning his wizarding skills, while trying to romance pretty blonde Naomi Watts look-a-like Palmer. Horvath has recruited egotistical British magician Drake Stone (Kebbell) in his quest to bring about the destruction of all humankind – the ultimate objective to resurrect Merlin's evil sister Morgana le Fay (Krige). There's precious little for adults to enjoy here as the plot plays second fiddle to the relentless onslaught of CGI trickery – all capably done, of course, but it renders the whole enterprise bereft of personality. Not once are we charmed by the characters or remotely interested in their shenanigans. We're swiftly driven from one effects sequence to another and it ends up a resolutely lifeless affair, humdrum and hokey.
Bruckheimer and his director Turtletaub (they previously collaborated on the National Treasure movies with Cage) need to pull their bootstraps up. This slight and sorry effort simply isn't good enough.