By nature I tend to be a very skeptical person; maybe it’s a defense mechanism, but that’s just how I’ve lived most of my life. The upside of this outlook is that every once in awhile I get pleasantly surprised. For example, whenever I meet new people I automatically assume the worst about them, but the flip side of this is that it’s very easy for them to exceed my low expectations. As you can probably infer, the same concept applies to movies as well.
The Bruckheimer and Cage fantasy vehicle, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, starts off with some ham-fisted exposition explaining the film’s basic premise. Back when the sorcerer game was at its peak, the famed Merlin had three apprentices. One of them, Horvath (Alfred Molina), decides to jump ship and allies with Merlin’s nemesis, a sorceress named Morgana who attains a spell of untold power. Before she can do any real damage, Merlin’s remaining apprentices, Balthazar (Cage) and Veronica (Monica Bellucci), imprison Morgana in some kind of mystical nesting egg. I’d like to note that I’m not making this shit up.
Anyways, Horvath is imprisoned then released, then imprisoned again, Balthazar joins him, and then they’re both released into the modern world. Upon his latest release, Horvath asks “when” he is. See what he did there? The narrative shifts its focus to Dave (Jay Baruchel), a dorky graduate student who Balthazar believes to be the--wait for it--Prime Merlinian, some kind of unfortunately named successor to the OG sorceror’s throne, and the only person capable of destroying Morgana once and for all.
Aside from convoluting an otherwise simple premise, Jerry Bruckheimer doesn’t really break any new ground here. What caught me off guard was that, after the almost unbearable first 20 or so minutes of the movie, I not only stopped wanting to kill myself, but I started having a good time. This troubled me; I’m usually a jaded prick with no patience for anything cutesy or campy, but something about this movie won me over. I was originally going to say that I didn’t hate this movie, but the truth is that I genuinely liked it. That’s the beauty of lowered expectations, I suppose.
It doesn’t hurt that the cast of this movie is stronger than it has any right to be: Alfred Molina has the villain hustle down pact; his Cageness is well utilized, giving the film a charming quirkiness by providing a creepy intensity to counteract the film’s Disney gloss; and Jay Baruchel is Jay Baruchel, a likable but awkward geek-wad everyman who would likely still be a virgin if it wasn’t for his celebrity status.
Cage and Baruchel spend a lot of screen-time together and, for the most part, it works. Their dynamic is completely unoriginal, but they seem to have chemistry. What doesn’t work is the run-of-the-mill love interests artificially implanted into the movie in a half-hearted attempt to provide an emotional core to the story. In fact, now that I think about it, nothing about this movie’s premise really works.
I’ve never understood the good vs. evil dichotomy present in most films. Even history’s greatest villains didn’t do things just for the sake of doing them; the tragedy is that, more often than not, they were led astray by misdirected moral compasses. Notions of right and wrong are not empirical: they are relative and shrouded in shades of gray. Of course, I’m not trying to excuse anybody’s behaviour, but we need to understand that there’s always a method behind the madness. History’s monsters are usually unrepentant, and that tells you that they’ve found a way to reconcile their actions according to their own moral codes.
The “destroy the world” plotlines put forward in movies like The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, therefore, stand uneasily on a foundation of over-simplicity. Horvath’s betrayal of his comrades kind of makes sense, but Morgana’s motivations are completely unexplored. It’s no surprise then that she’s the film’s least compelling character. What’s infinitely more problematic, however, is that any close reading of this film leads to nowhere. Without any explanation of Morgana’s actions we’re forced to question why any conflict--and, by extension, the entire movie--exist at all.
Putting all of my complaints aside for a moment, you can’t help but appreciate what good casting can do. Considering the issues I’ve outlined above, it only stands to reason that The Sorcerer’s Apprentice would have the odds stacked against it when it comes to the uphill battle for my affection and approval. However, a solid cast and above average writing elevate this modern day fantasy mash-up into something significantly more tolerable and likable than conventional logic would dictate.
