The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
If you expect Nicolas Cage to bring out the scene-stealing antics shown in Kick-Ass and Bad Lieutenant this year, you're in for a shock.
A live-action extension of Goethe's centuries-old story (already immortalised by Mickey Mouse in Fantasia) Disney's latest magical adventure is every bit as charming as you'd expect.
A shakey start sets the scene for a centuries-old battle of good and evil, with director Jon Turteltaub making the opening battle between Merlin's wizards less polished than a BBC production. After this ropey beginning, we head straight to this century, with a ten-year-old Dave stumbling into a Diagon Alley-style shop of creepiness while on a school trip in Manhattan. There he comes across a leather-coated, fedora-wearing Nicolas Cage as Balthazar, who has been waiting centuries for the one who will wear this dinky little dragon ring and help him battle Alfred Molina's bad wizard. Oh, and free his beloved Veronica (Monica Belluci) from an eternity in a Russian nesting doll alongside a very, very bad wizard: Merlin's old nemesis Morgana (Alice Krige), who wants to unleash hell on innocent humans, like all baddies do.
After little Dave witnesses Molina's Maxim have a magical punch-up with Balthazar, the two wizards end up in an ancient vase, which traps them for ten years. Dave endures a decade of teasing and subsequent counselling, which ruins his potential romance with the now grown-up Becky (Teresa Palmer), naturally a flawless blonde arty type to contrast with his socially awkward physics student.
When Balthazar and Maxim emerge from their nightmarish slumber, they must race to get the doll, with Dave recruited as a relunctant apprentice, continually denying his destiny. There follows the mentorship, with Cage and Baruchel's cute partnership the most memorable part of the film. However, if you expect Cage to bring out the scene-stealing antics shown in Kick-Ass and Bad Lieutenant this year, you're in for a shock. Despite this film coming about because of Cage's obsession with wizards and legends, he seems subdued, almost as if in reverence to his surroundings. It's left to Baruchel to carry the movie, and he bounces off Cage's sardonic remarks like a charm. A physical actor with natural comic timing, the hapless antics of a geeky hero come naturally, without ever descending into cliche. Molina's pompous and nasty enemy is a stock character, but laughs are to be had from his own apprentice, a preening celebrity magician in the form of Toby Kebbell.
If mention of the dodgy first scene has you worried, do not fear, as the magical happenings in modern-day New York are perfectly acceptable. There's nothing here that will leave you open-jawed in shock and awe, but special mention has to go to a spectacular fiery dragon chase through Chinatown.
The Sorcerer's Apprentice strikes the right balance of family fun versus adult appeal. The romance between Becky and Dave is gentle, and is allowed to grow naturally; the bickering between the wizards is corny but amusing. The explanation of magic to a sceptical Dave ties in nicely with science, and the nods to ancient legends are faithful. An inoffensive, enjoyable treat.
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