Jerry Bruckheimer, you should usually know what you get and pay for with his films, but every so often one hopes that the bar will be raised. Sometimes the action and excitement works in delirious ways (a former Nicolas Cage vehicle, Con Air), and other times it sinks to new lows (Bad Boys II). Most other times, it's the home of the mall-cineplex brand of generic, mundane action movies that have competent direction and cinematography and are so over-produced that they sound much like the over-produced pop songs featured on the soundtrack. The Sorcerer's Apprentice, another Bruckheimer movie directed by Jon Turtletaub and starring Cage is no exception. But the potential that is squandered is what is kind of sad. Kind of, I say, since it could have been worse.
It's the old story of a young guy plucked up to be the "chosen one" because he has some kind of gift (or he's just interested, both are the case here), and has a 'master' (not a mentor, there's a difference I guess) who teaches him the ropes. Jay Baruchel and Cage play apprentice and master, and they're facing off against Alfred Molina's Horvath, one of three Merlin students who are now foes in 2010 vying to stop/open a vase with an evil witch in their who can destroy the world, yada yada, Baruchel has a girl he wants to be with and/or protect, so on so forth. The script is by the numbers, so much so that watching the trailer you only get a hint as to how laid-out everything is. If you guessed, for example, that there will be a moment when the young hero decides this isn't for him because it's "too hard", you guessed right. And if you guessed that he comes back, you just won the 64,000 dollars.
What's the potential here? Not so much Jay Baruchel, who once again plays the wimpy nerd who has a few clever one liners and is mostly just a by-the-book nerdy guy (worked much better in How to Train Your Dragon by the way). It's the older stars, Cage and Molina, that could have so much fun with their roles. On occasion they do, and one can tell they had some thrills putting on their old-style costumes- Cage in particular looking like he could be out of film-noir as much as a sorcerer- but the script gives them little to do except declare things to other characters and deliver exposition. It's sad especially to see Cage, who had two roles in a role where he came alive (Terence McDonaugh and Big Daddy), slumming it in ways reminiscent of Next or Bangkok Dangerous. He takes the role where it goes, but he's just really there, all apart of the bland action-movie veneer. Where's the excitement, even if it's bad excitement, when he flies a mechanical eagle across the sky or shoots fireballs?
Perhaps for children this should do; watching it I could imagine the Nostalgia Critic (or Nostalgia Critic Jr) taking it to task, years down the line. It has cool special effects and a modern soundtrack and a good-lookin' female supporting love interest for Baruchel who will probably get a lot of work soon. It's also got a wooden plot and only one really neat action/chase scene, in Times Square with mirrors. It's a mostly flat Hollywood endeavor with a few really talented people.
It's the old story of a young guy plucked up to be the "chosen one" because he has some kind of gift (or he's just interested, both are the case here), and has a 'master' (not a mentor, there's a difference I guess) who teaches him the ropes. Jay Baruchel and Cage play apprentice and master, and they're facing off against Alfred Molina's Horvath, one of three Merlin students who are now foes in 2010 vying to stop/open a vase with an evil witch in their who can destroy the world, yada yada, Baruchel has a girl he wants to be with and/or protect, so on so forth. The script is by the numbers, so much so that watching the trailer you only get a hint as to how laid-out everything is. If you guessed, for example, that there will be a moment when the young hero decides this isn't for him because it's "too hard", you guessed right. And if you guessed that he comes back, you just won the 64,000 dollars.
What's the potential here? Not so much Jay Baruchel, who once again plays the wimpy nerd who has a few clever one liners and is mostly just a by-the-book nerdy guy (worked much better in How to Train Your Dragon by the way). It's the older stars, Cage and Molina, that could have so much fun with their roles. On occasion they do, and one can tell they had some thrills putting on their old-style costumes- Cage in particular looking like he could be out of film-noir as much as a sorcerer- but the script gives them little to do except declare things to other characters and deliver exposition. It's sad especially to see Cage, who had two roles in a role where he came alive (Terence McDonaugh and Big Daddy), slumming it in ways reminiscent of Next or Bangkok Dangerous. He takes the role where it goes, but he's just really there, all apart of the bland action-movie veneer. Where's the excitement, even if it's bad excitement, when he flies a mechanical eagle across the sky or shoots fireballs?
Perhaps for children this should do; watching it I could imagine the Nostalgia Critic (or Nostalgia Critic Jr) taking it to task, years down the line. It has cool special effects and a modern soundtrack and a good-lookin' female supporting love interest for Baruchel who will probably get a lot of work soon. It's also got a wooden plot and only one really neat action/chase scene, in Times Square with mirrors. It's a mostly flat Hollywood endeavor with a few really talented people.