In a way it's such a quintessential summer flick....loud, funny, fast and instantly forgettable.
Nicholas Cage puts in a decent performance as "Balthazar", a Sorcerer living in modern day new york. He manages to keep interest with his unhinged manner while sporting an indie/Rock-star look. "Balthazar" is in search of the PRIME-Merlinian or somesuch... the one who can defeat the evil "Morgana", a witch who was imprisoned by "Balthazar" thousands of years ago within a Russian Doll. "Balthazar" is against some stiff competition though as darstardly sorcerer "Horvarth" (Alfred Molina doing his best pantomime bad guy) tries to stop his plans and destroy the Prime Merlinain...in the form of a geeky wizard-in-training named "Dave".
Now onto Dave played by the irritatingly nasal and fidgity Jay Baruchel or as I like to call him "Michael Cera Lite". He really struggles and fumbles his way through scene after scene. The scriptwriting really doesn't help with its pedestrian and sometimes laughable dialogue that you really only hear in Spoofs (or Summer Blockbusters of this caliber), however the film is very fast paced...so it succeeds in keeping your attention (mainly to wonder what the hell is going on!).
The action certainly was really enjoyable with a wonderful scene set in Chinatown involving a transforming paper dragon during a street festival. Certainly one of the more colourful scenes. Overall though the cinematography is uninspiring and leaves alot to be desired with a sniff of Disney Channel TV Movie floating in the air at points.
Compared to the latest Disney release "Toy Story 3" it fails miserably but if woody and the gang are no longer playing at your local picture house I would recommend The Sorcerers Apprentice to a family on a rainy summers day..grab the popcorn, switch your brains off and let it wash over you.
3/5 not terrible but not magical either.
Review By Joseph Carter
No comments:
Post a Comment