Review: The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Grade: A

Balthazar is a great sorcerer, trained by Merlin himself, living in modern day Manhattan. He is on a quest to find a new sorcerer to train and help him fight an evil sorcerer, Horvath, before he frees the most powerful evil sorcerer, Morgana, from her magical prison and attempts to enslave humanity. He comes across Dave, a seemingly average physics nerd but who shows signs of being an ancestor in some way to Merlin, and chooses him to be his protégé. Dave is unsure of it all but reluctantly goes along with Balthazar’s crash course in sorcery. The unlikely partners begin to work together to stop the forces of darkness. As for Dave, it will take every ounce of courage he has to survive his training, save the world and get the girl.

I am a huge fan of the classic Disney movie, Fantasia, and one of my favorite bits from that has always been The Sorcerer’s Apprentice with Mickey Mouse accidently raising an army of brooms and causing mayhem. So I was intrigued by the concept of a live action movie. Well, it was great and I’m going to say it right off the bat, it is awesome to see a live action modern version of the living brooms bit. The rest of the movie is a lot of fun as well. Leave it to producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Pirates of the Caribbean, Déjà Vu) and director Jon Turteltaub (National Treasure, Cool Runnings) to take a concept like this and turn it into a really fun summer movie.

Everything about this movie is great. To start, it has a great cast. Nicolas Cage (Kick-Ass, Lord of War) plays the sorcerer Balthazar. I am a huge fan of Nicolas Cage and I felt he did a great job with this role. Jay Baruchel (She’s Out of My League, Tropic Thunder) plays Dave, and he did a great job in this as well, really keeps showing more and more promise. Alfred Molina (Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Spider-Man 2) plays the evil sorcerer, Horvath. I have always enjoyed Molina and he does not disappoint in this movie, he really does evil well. The rest of the cast includes Teresa Palmer, Toby Kebbell and Monica Bellucci. The movie is also really funny. Jay Baruchel and Nicolas Cage work really well together and both manage to be very funny at times. Not to mention that the action and sorcery in this movie are a lot of fun.

This movie is just plain enjoyable. Another great summer movie to go check out, if you can. It has it all really, action, comedy and a bit of romance thrown in. Disney just keeps surprising me by taking simple concepts, like a ride at Disney world or a short from an old movie that was about the music so there was no talking, and turning them into really amazing and fun movies to watch. I absolutely recommend that everybody go out and see Sorcerer’s Apprentice, you won’t be disappointed.