I belatedly caught the first National Treasure film only a few months ago, and I thought it was a great mix of adventure, comedy and fun (despite being a lightly veiled rip-off of The Da Vinci Code). So seeing Cage headlining a film directed by Treasure’s Jon Turteltaub automatically intrigued me -- and the title reference to my favorite scene in Fantasia also helped -- but anyone coming to this film searching for National Treasure 3 is better off waiting for that one a few more years.

It is not that The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is a bad film, but it is not particularly great either. After a bizarre and lengthy historical dual prologue sequence, we jump into the present life of physics nerd Dave (Jay Baruchel), who discovers he is a wizard with a destiny: only he can save humankind. He had repressed his earlier encounter with good sorcerer Balthazar (Nicolas Cage) and the increasingly evil sorcerer Horvath (Alfred Molina), but when both come back into his life, and the fate of the world hangs in the balance, Dave slowly comes around to the idea of training with Balthazar in order to take his place as the prophesied wizardly savior of the world.

The opening prologue, first taking place in the 700s before zipping to 2000, takes up a good twenty minutes of the film, and may just be one of the most convoluted pieces of pointless exposition I have ever seen. There is an inherent simplicity to it, but the voiceover dialogue and the actions of the main players make it a whole lot more complicated than it needs to be. And this notion hangs over the rest of the movie, because if you did not quite understand it then, the film never really stops to go over it again (unless you count “[Person] wants to destroy the world, and you are the only hope” as explanation enough). This overly intricate set-up is completely missing from any trailer for the film, suggesting that even the marketing team felt it was silly and unneeded.

But once the film does get going, it’s actually not all that bad. Sure, some of the dialogue is terrible (one wasted punchline involving a Star Wars reference feels all too easy and lame), but there are quite a few great quips coming from Cage and Baruchel. The storyline suffers from the drawn-out set-up, but it becomes a lot more natural and mildly enjoyable halfway through. The majority of the film feels like it belongs in the same “fun” genre as National Treasure and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (both films ruined by subpar sequels), but does not have the same heart or genuine laughs.

But even the small amount of good it does possess is betrayed by an awfully abrupt ending, along with some occasionally horrendous editing. In more than one scene, the dialogue doesn’t match the actors’ lips, and an epic car chase sequence is almost ruined by an incredibly obvious continuity error. It just feels sloppy, full of mistakes that could have easily been fixed in post production. This is a very expensive tailor-made blockbuster, even if the box office receipts do not suggest it, and there is no reason why corners like these should be cut, and even less of a reason for these errors to exist in the first place. (The use of pop music in some cases, as opposed to Trevor Rabin’s score is equally disappointing, but more of a secondary complaint than anything.)

Acting-wise, Cage steals the show. He is not as over-the-top as he was in Kick-Ass, or as dementedly off-the-rails as he was in Bad Liuetenant: Port of Call New Orleans, but he still manages to deliver a riveting performance here. He does not seem to know when he wants to be serious or wants to ham it up, but it works for his unorthodox sorcerer. At any given moment, it looks like Cage is just having a blast working on this film, and even when he gets saddled with a new third act motive that is as unnecessary as the prologue, he makes it work and makes his character stronger for it. Even with the fantastical elements at play in the film, and specifically with his character, Cage is the single most believable thing here.

Baruchel, while not quite at a point in his career where he can legitimately carry a movie (voice acting notwithstanding), is still quite watchable as Dave. You can visibly see him struggling to play off Cage, and you can tell the duo lack the chemistry needed for these buddy-mentor roles, but where he succeeds greatly is in his comic timing. He does what he can with the role, and he pulls off an identifiable if not heroic (nor especially romantic) character, although he needs to diversify as an actor to really make it as a leading man.

The absolutely stunning Monica Belluci, playing a sorceress, is criminally underused in here, as are Toby Kebbell as Horvath’s assistant and Omar Benson Miller as Dave’s friend. Molina does an adequate job as the main villain, but he lacks the intensity and drive that made his turn as Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2 so memorable. Here he just seems too static, and does not appear to be having fun at all.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is not a terrible film, but it is not as bad as most critics claim. Sure, it is neither as fun nor as good as it could have been, but it still makes for a fairly entertaining throwaway.

  -- David Baldwin

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