The Sorcerer's Apprentice - Movie Review

The Sorcerer's Apprentice
U/a; fantasy/action
Dir: Jon Turteltaub
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Jay Baruchel, Alfred Molina, Teresa Palmer, Monica Bellucci, and Toby Kebbell
'1/2

What's it about: Chants, spells, wizards, goblins and magical wands are usually synonymous with the Harry Potter films. The Sorcerer's Apprentice aims at the same audience with a slightly urban story. Balthazar Blake (Nicolas Cage) is a sorcerer with a very bad wig defending his city from obvious enemies. Along the way he stumbles upon his to-be prot ufffdg ufffd Dave (Baruchel) with whom he forms an alliance to battle the bad guys. Through the film we are given discourses on black magic, tricks to combat them and anything that will excite the CGI guys to show off their graphic wizardry.

What's hot: Jerry Bruckheimer as always goes all out to dazzle you with the fireworks on screen. The special effects and CGI impress in parts. If you don't really care much about the story, the film engages you on a subliminal level. Baruchel is earnest and plays his part well. As an apprentice, he doesn't come off as an annoying kid. Cageu00a0 seems to be having fun without pretending otherwise. Even under that hideous hairdo, is an earnest sincerity to play the part right.u00a0

What's not: Despite all the FX and special effects, there isn't really a major wow moment in the film. The story falls flat once the action starts to wane. Unfortunately, the gorgeous Monica Bellucci doesn't get enough screen time to even register. Granted, Cage and Turteltaub have met with enormous success in National Treasure, but here they just seem bored of each other. Desperate would be a good word to describe their chemistry or the sheer lack of it.
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What to do: Even the smart graphics and visual effects can't engage you in this poorly scripted of magic and sorcery.