Movie review nº3 - Sorcerer's Apprentice

So. I was forced to go to this movie with my good friend. She said it looked rather nice in the trailer. I thought in looked rather medicore and wanted to go on "Inception". But hey, I did her a favor.
We were both wrong. The "Sorcerer's Apprentice" wasn't good, and it wasn't medicore. It was TERRIBLE. Even she apologized me for making me watch that movie.

I could just end the review here and suffer less, but I have to write about horrible stuff too.

2010 production. Fantasy, Action, Adventure.

Starring: Nicolas Cage (Lord of War, Kick-Ass) , Jay Baruchel (...dunno), Alfred Molina (Spiderman 2, Frida), Monica Bellucci (The Passion of the Christ, Matrix, Asterix)
Director: Jon Turteltaub (Jericho)

In 740 AD, one of Merlin's (James A. Stephens) apprentices, Maxim Horvath (Alfred Molina), joins forces with the evil sorceress Morgana le Fay (Alice Krige), betraying Merlin. Morgana mortally wounds Merlin before his other apprentices, Balthazar Black (Nicolas Cage) and Veronica (Monica Bellucci), can stop her. While Balthazar battles Horvath, Morgana prepares to kill Balthazar, but is stopped by Veronica, who absorbs Morgana’s soul into her own body. As Morgana tries to kill Veronica from within, Balthazar stops her by imprisoning Morgana and Veronica in the Grimhold, a prison similar to a nesting doll.

Before dying, Merlin gives his remaining apprentice a dragon ring that will choose the Prime Merlinian, who will become Merlin's successor. Only the Prime Merlinian will be able to defeat Morgana. Throughout history Balthazar imprisons Morganians, sorcerers who try to release Morgana, including Horvath, into successive layers on the Grimhold while he searches for the successor.

In 2000 AD in Manhattan, 10-year-old Dave Stutler (Jake Cherry) encounters Balthazar in an antique store, who is as youthful as when Merlin gave him the ring. Hoping he is the successor, Balthazar gives him the dragon ring, which comes alive and locks onto Dave's finger. Dave accidentally opens the Grimhold, releasing Horvath



Screenplay, Story: 2/10 - The story is bad. Why? Because it's so typical.I know it's based on the Goethe's poem, but the poem wasn't a hollywood movie with special effects as main characters. An it was written in 1797.
So, the story in short - young guy who is a looser, meets a sorcerer and studys magic, so he can defeat the bad guys who want to  destroy the world, bla bla bla.

Dialogues: 4/10 - Suprisingly not as bad as I thought. I found some of the humor quite nice. I wasn't laughing, but I smiled few times. But there were many 'facepalm' moments, mostly implying from a terrible story.

Actor's play, Characters: 3,5/10 - I've changed a category a bit from one reason. The were some good, famous actors playing in that movie, so ofc they will play nicely. But it doesn't change anything. So I've decided to rate characters. And...they are quite dumb. Balthazar - not very convincing for an old old wizard. Dave - annoying as shit, you can find this type of characters in almost every movie! Looser and then becomes a hero. Arghhh. But well played. Horvath - well, the least annoying character I think, but still not a great villan if you ask me.

Music, Sound effects: 5/10 - I don't remeber any soundtrack piece at all. That's bad. Sound effects are very good idd, but let's not forget it's a movie with 150 milion $ budget.

Cinematography: 4/10 -  Typical. Boring. And sometimes, too fast frame skips. For example - in car chase scene i couldn't even recognize what car the villans are driving.

Special effects: 7/10 - I agree I saw some nice effects in the trailer. But they wasn't that great in the movie. Looked kinda outdated sometimes. I like steel eagle and few other things though. But they should put more work on how the spells look.

Meaning, Feel, Depth: 0/10 - There was no meaning, or depth. I wanted to go out from the cinema sometimes, so it didn't feel great at all.  I would normally give it 2 or 3, but complete lack of any lesson, meaning takes away these points. Even an action move should have some, even simple, but it should. Look at "Kick-Ass" for example.



Overall: 3,0 - as bad, as waking up on monday. After drinking few gallons of vodka the day before.

(score is not the lowest, cause I've seen worse movies, oh yes)


I don't know why "Sorcerer's Appretice" had got quite good reviews. It has 6.4 score on imdb! WTF?
I liked few bits here and there- steel eagle, Mercedes Mclaren SLR, tesla song, that mirror spell and Becky. But overally it was a terrible movie. Maybe some kids will like it, but I certainly know better things for them to watch than this.