The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is the type of film you expect from Jerry Bruckheimer. In other words, it’s not of the most impressive narrative quality. It’s very inline with his other works. With that said, it still happens to be a quite enjoyable, if utterly forgettable piece, of charming spectacle. The best thing it’s got going for it: it is hilarious for both the right and wrong reasons.
Director Jon Turteltaub’s magic adventure is pure camp. It’s difficult to tell whether the cheese on fully display is intentional or not, but that doesn’t really matter. What matters is the fact that there’s plenty of laughs to be had. Most of the actors seem to know what film they’re in and thankfully they embrace the broad side. Yes, Cage once agin shows how triumphant he is when it comes to the ludicrous. This feels like a film out of the 80s and, on that level, it succeeds.
The best comparison one can make to The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is this summer’s Prince of Persia, also a Bruckheimer production. Both are extremely formulaic, but Apprentice succeeds in two ways gets two major Persia failed on: charming characters and comprehensible action. The main issue with Persia is that the plight of the heroes is never too important. In fact, you’d hardly care if they ended up getting killed. That’s not the case here. While Balthazar (Nicolas Cage) and Dave (Jay Baruchel) aren’t exactly the most “dense” of characters, they are charming, they are likable and, most importantly, you buy their relationship.
Right from the clunky beginning – oddly narrated by the brilliant mannerisms of Ian McShane – it’s apparent that this thing’s not going to be ambitious. This is a film that’ll do nothing more than attempt to bring a smile on your face. It’s mindless for sure, but it has enough going for it. Enough to give in to the chaos of it all.
The film zips along rather quickly with only a few bumps along the way. Nearly anything involving Baruchel is, of course, going to have plenty of comedic opportunity. Sadly, more than a few jokes feel out of place. Whenever the stakes are high – which are never as high as they should be, especially during the slightly-underwhelming climax – it’s as if the filmmakers’ have to the urge to remind you it’s just a comedy. This throws off the pacing quite a bit. These moments could’ve been exercised in the editing room. Besides that, the pacing is still strong. There’s very few dull moments. Even the romance involving Teresa Palmer doesn’t throw off the pacing, while never feeling completely necessary.
A cast playing in the fantasy world have to walk a fine line. One can either deliver a self-aware, tongue-in-cheek performance or end up giving a disastrous one, coming off as the one guy who felt that the material called for seriousness. All the actors here seem to know what type of film they’re in– especially Cage and Alfred Molina (playing the villain Horvath). Molina was one of the few brightspots of Prince of Persia. Here he further ramps up the broadness we saw there. It’s an epic scenery-chewing match between the two vets. You start not to care if Horvath or Balthazar will win their over-century long battle, but it becomes more so about who’s going to take things to the next level. They both swing for the fences in that arena and it’s a joy to watch.
This may be a film that’ll slip by due to low expectations and may very well end up not working on second viewing, but as of right now, as a theater-going experience, it’s one worth having.