So...
According to the credits of The Sorcerer's Apprentice 6 different people worked on the movie's story. That doesn't include the countless other names associated with the script who didn't receive credit. This isn't untypical for a big Hollywood release, as often the film is rushed into production to meet a release date picked out before shooting even commences, not to mention all the talking heads, AKA creative executives, involved in the project who can't make up their minds about the direction of the screenplay - thus the necessity for several different writers. With a few talented ones, the mash-up of ideas, pages and story beats can come together flawlessly. With less talented scripters, however, the result can be quite messy. Such is the case with The Sorcerer's Apprentice, which feels like three competing scripts all patched together by a broken wand.
Oddly enough, the movie starts well, presenting itself as a breezy, FX laden fantasy about dueling magicians - one good, one evil - who are trying to find the last descendant of Merlin, a boy who offers the only hope of stopping the greatest Sorceress ever to have lived, Morgana la Fey (of King Arthur fame), who is fated to return and enslave the Earth under her dark spell. One magician wants to kill the boy, the other wants to train him. You can probably guess from the movie's title who gets to him first.
The first half of the film is solid. There's a couple forced jokes, mostly to unnecessarily lighten up Nicolas Cage's good magician, but the pacing is spot on and the characters are all likable, charming or deliciously evil, as called for. The sorcerers perform a few clever tricks that should wow the audience, including a nifty sword fight where the combatants are on opposite sides of the room, and there's also an ingenious way of trapping the spirits of various dark sorcerers. At times, the magic itself gets a bit too unfocused, to the point of "if they can do that, why can't they do this," but the director keeps things moving so that one hardly has time to reflect on it for long.
It's really the back half of the film, after the apprentice's actual training begins, that things start to unwind. One minute the young apprentice, played by Judd Apatow regular bit player Jay Baruchel, displays no skills, the next he is able to conjure a magic plasma ball in no time flat. I know he's the chosen one and all, but it would have been more believable had the film set up his abilities earlier on, especially since the first time we meet him he is only ten years old.
The acting also begins to go downhill from this point on, with Cage unsure whether to play the magician comically or seriously. His role is eventually just diminished, as if the director could no longer make up his mind if his character is a help or a hindrance to the story and just decided to cut most of his lines.
Baruchel, of course, meets up again with the dream girl he first met at ten and for some reason begins channelling a bad impression of Woody Allen. She's gorgeous and, in typical Hollywood fashion, falls for his goofy looks and nebbish behavior; her fate is as predictable as the direction a rabbit is pulled from a hat. It's a shame that after such a promising start the film decided to go with such a conventional third act.
The ending also feels rushed, as if everyone was looking at their watches and trying to jam in as much as possible. A little breathing room would have been welcome between all the magical frenzy. It got so bad that I couldn't tell if certain resolutions were left unclear on purpose (sequel?) or if it was just bad editing.
Judging by the quality of The Sorcerer's Apprentice, I wouldn't hold my breath for a part two.
Best viewed: free on TV, on a very slow family night.
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