This post contains affiliate links and our team will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on the links.
A fun, modern-day adventure follows Dave (JAY BARUCHEL), just an average college student, or so it appears, until the sorcerer Balthazar Blake (NICOLAS CAGE) recruits him as his reluctant protégé and gives him a crash course in the art and science of magic. As he prepares for a battle against the forces of darkness in modern-day Manhattan, Dave finds it is going to take all of the courage he can muster to survive his training, save the city and get the girl as he becomes THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE.
The film begins in 740 AD where we meet Merlin’s three apprentices — Balthazar Blake (Nicolas Cage), Maxim Horvath (Alfred Molina), and Veronica Gorloisen (Monica Bellucci). During the fall of Camelot, Horvath joins with Merlin’s mortal enemy Morgan le Fay but Merlin and Blake are able to stop them before they can raise an army of the dead.
Merlin grants Blake immortality while tasking him with finding the Prime Merlinian (the person who will inherit Merlin’s powers) as they are the only person who can permanently defeat le Fey. Over the next millennia Blake imprisons Morganians, (sorcerers who try to release Morgana), including Horvath, into new layers on the Grimhold while conducting his search.
The film looks visually impressive. The details are spectacular, befitting a movie so dependent on special effects. What really stands out are the blues and reds that are on display when the wizards battle, those particular colors really pop. The black levels are crisp and defined and never wash the actors out.
The movie is very flashy and nice to look at, but the story is just lacking. I thought Baruchell was great as the apprentice and was the right amount of nerdy geek to play the part. Cage was doing more of his crazy stuff which he’s been doing for a while and while it worked, it’s nothing we haven’t seen before. I enjoyed Molina, good guy or bad guy he’s is excellent in whatever role he portrays, but the script needed more than just a loose concept that seemed to fill in as the movie progressed.
Bonus Features: Go behind the scenes and on location to learn all about the making of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Blu-Ray:
Magic In The City
The Science Of Sorcery
Making Magic Real
The Fashionable Drake Stone
The Grimhold: An Evil Work Of Art
The Encantus
Wolves & Puppies
The World’s Coolest Car
5 Deleted Scenes
Outtakes
And more!
DVD / iTunes:
The Making Of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (DVD only)
Deleted Scene: Balthazar Recruits Dave
