The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Blu-ray + DVD Combo)
DVD Reviews | Dec 3rd, 2010
Starring: Jay Baruchel, Nicolas Cage, Alfred Molina, Monica Bellucci, Alice Krige, Teresa Palmer, Toby Kebbell, Omar Benson Miller
Written By: Doug Miro, Carlo Bernard, Matt Lopez
Directed By: Jon Turteltaub
Studio: Disney/ Buena Vista
Buy On Amazon.com
Sorcerer’s Apprentice didn’t exactly look that great based on the trailers. Since I had low expectations about the Bruckheimer produced fantasy flick, I ended up enjoying it a lot more than I thought I was going to.
The movie is loosely based on the Sorcerer’s Apprentice scene in Disney’s Fantasia, as well as the 1890s symphonic poem from Dukas and a ballad from Goethe. The film is about an ancient sorcerer Balthazar Blake (Nicolas Cage) who’s living in modern day New York City, trying to find his old master Merlin’s next successor. Back in 740, Merlin was betrayed and killed by his arch nemesis Morgana and his other apprentice Maxim Horvath (Alfred Molina). Merlin’s other apprentices Balthazar and Veronica (Monica Bellucci), try to stop Maxim and Morgana. While fighting Maxim, Veronica sacrifices herself to stop Morgana from killing Balthazar, and imprisons both her and Morgana into a Grimhold. Balthazar spends the next couple hundred years finding a replacement for Merlin until he comes upon Dave (Jay Baruchel) in his antique shop. Dave is a nerdy physics college student who goes to NYU and is quite awkward and dorky. Like every Jay Baruchel character pretty much. Balthazar gives Dave a crash course in magic and sorcery, but it takes some time for Dave to come around. He needs Dave to be ready so they can battle Maxim Horvath and celebrity magician Drake Stone (Toby Kebbell) and stop them from unleashing Morgana and destroying the world.
Like I said above, I had very low expectations. I didn’t expect to come out liking the movie but I actually did. It was fun and entertaining, and I didn’t outright hate which is always a plus. I liked Nic Cage’s character Balthazar and felt he worked well with Jay Baruchel. Jay is starting to get into Michael Cera territory a little with playing the same type of characters. He was okay though, and had a few funny lines. I actually thought Toby Kebbell stole each scene he was in. He was hilarious and should have had more of him in it. I felt he was gonna go places after seeing him in Rock n Rolla. The story is a bit confusing, so I can only imagine how confusing it is to younger kids. Even if the story is confusing, you still get the gist of things in the end. There’s enough action and exciting scenes in here for people to enjoy and you never, you might end up liking it.
The Blu-Ray/DVD combo has a nice collection of features like deleted scenes, featurettes, outtakes and other cool things. I liked the featurettes on filming in NYC and the science behind the sorcery stuff. Seeing outtakes is always fun to watch as well. The DVD doesn’t have that much on it in terms of extras so obviously if you like extras, get the Blu-Ray if you have a Blu-Ray player.
Sorcerer’s Apprentice isn’t a perfect movie and is very flawed. I don’t think the special effects were that great; but definitely not the worst I’ve seen. Some things looked good, some didn’t. I didn’t think the dragon looked that great, or the flying stone bird thing. But if you go into the movie with an open mind, you could enjoy this one like I did.
Special Features:
Disc 1: Blu-ray
Magic In The City
The Science Of Sorcery
Making Magic Real
Fantasia: Reinventing A Classic
The World’s Coolest Car
5 Deleted Scenes
Outtakes
Plus More
Disc 2: DVD
The Making Of
Deleted Scenes
Video:
Widescreen 2.40:1 Color
Screen Resolution:
1080p
Audio:
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital Stereo
ENGLISH: DTS-HD MA 5.1
SPANISH: Dolby Digital 5.1
FRENCH: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:
English, Spanish, French
Bottom Line: Fun and entertaining, but definitely not the best movie in the world.
Running Time: 120 minutes
Rating: PG
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating:
