Climbing Higher Pictures

After the box office disappointment that was Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, many expected to see Jerry Bruckheimer‘s producing muscle return to form for his latest collaboration with Disney and Nicolas Cage. Add to it the director of the highly successful National Treasure films, and it would seem like the recipe for box office gold is certainly there. Does the film, however, warrant a place of positivity in a summer riddled with painful lowest common denominator pandering?

Sorcerer’s Apprentice Review

By Ryan Hamelin

Movie Grade: B-

Nicolas Cage is a man of many talents. Up until recently, acting ability may or may not have been one of them, depending on who you asked. Not so, however, with Jon Turteltaub’s latest Bruckheimer produced summer popcorn tent-pole. If the special effects weren’t so impressive, Cage’s performance could be singled out as one of the strongest parts of the film, and when coupled with his work in Kick-Ass, could very well be a sign of a Nicolas Cage renaissance, something I’m entirely okay with. The man has turned in plenty of quality acting over his extensive filmography, just not nearly as much of it in recent years. Maybe he’ll be able to pay off his massive debt soon.

But back to the movie. This is Cage and Turteltaub’s third collaboration after the previous two National Treasure films, and it’s clear that they have a very supportive working relationship. Throwing Jay Baruchel and Alfred Molina into the fray helps to draw attention away from the often over-bearing Cage, and the whole film feels like a carefully orchestrated balancing act. It walks a fine line between dramatic seriousness, fantasy epicness, and comedic ridiculousness and jumps between all three with little to no warning. The formula for an incredibly entertaining summer blockbuster is something Bruckheimer seems to have a patent on, and it’s back to work here in full force. All the wheels turn just the way you want them to, and though you wish the writers had gone further with their mythology from time to time, there’s enough there to lend credence to the bombastic light show on display.

Unfortunately, for every pitch perfect moment and satisfying quip, there’s a few seconds of such painfully god-awful screenwriting and filmmaking that you have to cringe. For example, the entire opening ten minutes is one of the lamest and most tragically overbearing prologues I have ever seen. Not only is it unnecessary, clearly tacked on in post, and counter intuitive to the idea of the audience discovering this universe along with the main character, but it leaves the viewer with an incredibly bad taste in their mouth before the plot even has a chance to kick in. I don’t know who it was that thought we needed to be told every single iota of historical information in a toneless monotone by a disembodied narrator, but they should really be taken out behind the wood shed and shot. Cutting that sequence raises the letter grade to a solid B at least. The other moments are scattered throughout the film, and just remind the audience from time to time that there were approximately twelve different writers on this particular project, and that no consistent through-line in style or content exists.

If you buy a ticket to this movie, you’re probably not looking for anything more than an incredibly diverting and enjoyable ride, and that’s exactly what you’ll get. Will the film survive a direct head-to-head clash with Inception? Probably not, but in the off chance that it does make decent bank, you can be sure that I’ll line up for the future sequels/spinoffs. There’s a certain type of film that deserves to become a franchise, and this is certainly that kind of movie. It’s like a big budget version of a favorite cheesy television show, just with longer episodes and a lot more time between them. There are clearly plenty more stories to tell, and when combined with a pretty accurate interpretation of New York City (despite the inference that NYU has an Athletic Center or that all of the buildings therein are lined exclusively with exposed brickwork) it seems only natural to revisit this universe for a second time. From all accounts, you’ll need to put your brain on ice after Inception, so perhaps this is exactly the cool down you’ll be looking for.