Nicolas Cage plays a sorcerer who recruits a physics student to fight evil in Manhattan. That is the pitch of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and the film never finds a reason to be more than that.
Trailer, via Disney UK.
Balthazar Blake Hunts the Grimhold
Jon Turteltaub directs from a screenplay by Matt Lopez and the team of Doug Miro and Carlo Bernard, with a screen story by Lopez, Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal. The story reaches back to a 1940 Fantasia segment, itself drawn from a Paul Dukas tone poem, itself drawn from a 1797 Goethe ballad. That is a long chain of borrowed ideas, and the movie carries the weight of all of it without adding much of its own.
Cage’s Balthazar Blake is a master sorcerer, centuries old, hunting his nemesis Maxim Horvath across modern New York. Alfred Molina plays Horvath, and he is the best thing here — a villain who once stood beside Merlin before bitterness turned him. Jay Baruchel’s Dave Stutler is the reluctant apprentice, a physics student who has been under psychiatric care since a childhood run-in with magic. Balthazar hands him a dragon figurine that turns into a ring and marks him as the Prime Merlinean, Merlin’s descendant and the only one who can stop Morgana le Fay.
A Chrysler Building Gargoyle Comes Alive
The plot is a fetch quest. Balthazar needs the Grimhold, a magical nesting doll that holds Morgana’s soul and a roster of imprisoned sorcerers. Horvath wants it too. The two chase it through Chinatown and the city, with Dave dragged along. One set piece has Balthazar riding an animated steel eagle adapted from a Chrysler Building gargoyle. It is the only image that stays with you.
Monica Bellucci and Alice Krige Get Nothing
Monica Bellucci plays Veronica Gorloisen, Balthazar’s love interest. Alice Krige plays Morgana. Both are wasted. So is Teresa Palmer as Becky Barnes, Dave’s love interest, who exists to be rescued and kissed. Toby Kebbell appears as Drake Stone, a celebrity illusionist who joins Horvath, gets a few good notes, then vanishes into the machinery.
109 Minutes, No Sequel Coming
The film runs 109 minutes and treats every beat as setup for a franchise that never arrived. The training scenes have no logic. Dave learns magic because the script needs him to. The climax lands because the running time demands it.
The Numbers Behind the Bomb
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice premiered at the Fantasia International Film Festival on July 8, 2010, and opened in the United States on July 14. It grossed $215 million against a $150 million budget.
Hard Numbers
- Release: July 14, 2010 (US)
- Runtime: 109 minutes
- Budget: $150 million
- Gross: $215 million
- Metacritic: 46/100
- Score: 4.6/10
The Wound Molina Plays
The film’s problem is not Cage. He is fully committed, which is its own kind of pleasure. The problem is that The Sorcerer’s Apprentice wants the sweep of a franchise opener without earning a single relationship. Balthazar and Dave never become partners — they become plot functions. Horvath is the only character with a wound that explains him, and Molina plays that wound with real hurt.
Strip out the mythology and the prophecy and you have a movie about a sad old man and a nervous kid. That version might have worked. This one leaves you with a steel eagle and a nesting doll.
A 109-minute film with one good image and one good performance is not a franchise. It is a demo reel for a movie nobody made.
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