Director: Jerry TurteltaubWriters: Matt Lopez, Doug Miro, & Carlo Bernard
Starring: Jay Baruchel, Nicholas Cage, Alfred Molina
"I have been searching all over the world for you. You're going to be a force for good and a very important sorcerer. But for now, you're my apprentice." Balthazar Blake (Cage), one of three apprentices of Merlin, trains Dave Stutler (Baruchel) as his own apprentice to help him vanquish his nigh-immortal foe Maxim Horvath (Molina), another Merlinian.
I wasn't expecting a lot from this film; maybe that's why I kind of liked it. Molina's great at playing villains (remember Spider-Man 2?) and Cage, while it's not one of his best performances, it's not one of his worst either. The role plays to his natural insanity, shall we say. Baruchel...is yet again the girl-repellant nerd he's been playing lately; I hope he can grow out of it, and sooner rather than later. The writing surprised me most, though. While it's a slightly-above-average summer popcorn flick, the science-as-magic premise really appealed to me, and while the dragon wasn't terribly realistic, the effects are otherwise executed well, and the obligatory mop scene is executed without a hitch. My only real problems were two: there's an elderly man that Horvath goes to (who seems to already know him) in search of an apprentice, and this man's background is glossed over completely. Is he another sorcerer? Your guess is as good as mine. In addition, a character near the end just sort of gets forgotten about by the writers during the film's climax, which is one of the worst things a writer can possibly do. He's there one moment, gets knocked out, and then not seen for the rest of the film. Regardless, I'd say this one's worth renting for a single watch. C/C+
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