From the man who brought us the massive movie franchise based on a Disney theme park ride comes a movie based on a scene from a Disney animation. OK, that movie happens to be the classic masterpiece FANTASIA, and the scene is one of its most iconic, featuring the studio's biggest star, with the image of Mickey in wizard's garb still very much part of Disney's branding to this day. So how do you turn a sequence about enchanted, out-of-control housekeeping into a live action movie that will appeal to today's sophisticated (in its archaic meaning) audiences?
Obviously, you plunder the Disney archives for a popular wizard (Merlin) to set up a back story about curses and apprentices, then set in modern New York with a geeky kid (preferably Jewish, for a bit of additional neurosis), add some romantic interest for the female audience and then, being a Bruckheimer movie, get Nicolas Cage to star in it. If this makes it sound contrived and formulaic, you wouldn't be far wrong. However, this is the movie business and not arthouse cinema. The Disney/Bruckheimer partnership has produced some of the biggest box-office hits in movie history by making mass-market entertainment, and while it may not appeal to the cineaste purists, they are good at what they do, which is to entertain, and on that score this film is a success.
It was with some trepidation that I went to see this film, for all the reasons stated above, but I would never call myself a film snob; hell, I like (some) Kevin Smith movies and enjoyed TRANSFORMERS. If a film is technically proficient and has an engaging story/screenplay I will watch it, and as I already said, these guys know how to make movies, even if they have to spend billions of dollars doing it.
Let's start with the story. In 8th century Britain, Balthazar Blake (Nicolas Cage) is one of Merlin's apprentices, along with Balthazar's lover Veronica (Monica Bellucci) and fellow wizard Maxim Horvath (Alfred Molina). In a battle with the evil Morgana le Fay (Alice Krige) Veronica, who has captured Morgana inside her body, and Maxim become entrapped within a Grimhold where they must stay until Balthazar can find the Prime Merlinian, who will be capable of finally destroying Morgana forever. Fast forward to Manhattan in 2000 and young Dave Stutler stumbles upon a magic shop run my Balthazar and is identified as the Merlinian but ends up awakening Horvath who does battle with Balthazar, before the two old adversaries are trapped in a magical urn for ten years. Jump forward to today; Dave is a physics genius studying at university and the two rival wizards have escaped the urn. So ensues a battle for the Grimhold to either release Morgana so she can complete her plan to release evil into the world, or for Dave to finally destroy her by realising his potential.
It's your basic good versus evil story, which allows for plenty of stunning special effects set pieces (including an updated version of the domestic chaos scene that inspired the movie). The characters do tend towards stereotypes rather than archetypes, but they are saved by a knowing script (not to be confused with another Cage starrer) and some enthusiastic, over-the-top performances from Molina and Toby Kebbell (Control) as a young rock-star illusionist Drake Stone, both of whom are clearly having fun. Cage makes a fair fist of his part as the longhaired Balthazar, utilising his familiar mixture of angst and action, although this is not on a par with his other recent outings as the drug-addled cop in Herzog's BAD LIEUTENANT, or as Big Daddy in KICK-ASS. Jay Baruchel is fine as the geeky hero, although he is better at the geeky, and less convincing as the hero. From a geek/nerd perspective, the most exciting thing about the movie, for me, is the use of a Tesla coil as Dave's weapon of choice against the forces of evil, especially as Nikola Tesla is often referred to as the Wizard, even during his lifetime. If Tesla's inventions had been used as he intended, the world would be a much better place (free electricity, universal wireless internet, electric cars that didn't need batteries, the list goes on). Unfortunately, Tesla was unable to defeat the greatest evil facing the world – corporate greed.
Despite my original misgivings, the film is a lot of fun with plenty of eye candy and action to keep it entertaining for its entire running time. A sequel seems inevitable.
THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE is on general release from August 11
