So they say, this movie was inspired by a Mickey Mouse cartoon. That there, dear readers is what I call a fig leaf. What these merry folk really are saying is, "Damn! I want me some of the hawt Harry Potter money, but I don't want to look like a rip off artist." I may be cynical here.. maybe you dear reader can look at a Mickey Mouse cartoon and immediately say, "Of course, Nicolas Cage!" I myself, just don't have the imagination for it.
So, we start off with Ian McShane narrating the back story. Frankly, they could have just let Ian McShane do the whole damn movie with him making shadow puppets, but then I like me some Ian McShane. But, I digress. Basically, Merlin is in an epic struggle against Morgana Le Fay. To aid his quest for a Morgana free world Merlin has trained three apprentices; Balthazar (Nicolas Cage), Horvath (Alfred Molina), and Veronica (Monica Belluchi). Unfortunately, this was one apprentice too many. Horvath throws in with Morgana, which leads to the death of Merlin. Veronica sucks up Morgana's soul (ewww), and Balthazar must imprison them both in a funky doll. Merlin charges Balthazar before his toes curl up to seek the "chosen one" (not the real term so sue), and while doing that Balthazar catches bad mages like Horvath and put them in the doll.
So cut to ten years ago when a dorky kid hits Balthazar's radar as maybe being the chosen one. But things get off to a rocky start when the kid unleashes Horvath and he and Balthazar have a fight. End result is years of therapy for the kid, the doll with Morgana getting lost, and Horvath and Balthazar both get flattened into a nice glaze.
Now it's today and the kid is a really nerdy physics student. He's played by Jay Baruchel sort of like Stewart French with eyes being open. This means I sort of hate him and consider all the types of nasty magic that could be cast on him. Meanwhile, our magicians get freed and the race is on for the doll and for the Apprentice. There are several set pieces of some bad ass magic, and at this point I have to say Cage has his best lines. Cage can make a line like "run," perfectly hilarious.
Unfortunately, we eventually have to get to training the geek. We also have to address the geek's love life issues. We also must let the plot lumber forth. It's not bad here, but it is certainly by the numbers. Alfred Molina tries his best to make his villain an unpredictable combination of suave and barbarian. Sort of like if a Viking would watch too many bond films and had a sudden desire to stroke a white cat. Morgana doesn't do much, but the had Alice Krige play her, so my own inner nerd is amused by the idea as Morgana the Borg Queen.
Overall, it's fun even when annoys. Don't think just watch. Oh and remember HARRY POTTER HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS.
STRANGE SPANNERS being an accounting of strangeness of the warp and woof of my mind For those of you new here, think of this as 1/2 "Night Gallery" Our Motto: Nos somnium quisnam es futurus fatum quod insolitus tutus vos!
Yes, anything Hollywood is after a buck, not originality. It does have the classic music/mop scene of the animated Sorcerer's Apprentice, which was probably the low point of the film. Nick had a good time being casual, after all, he's ancient and has seen so much, nothing is flapping him.
ReplyDeleteJay Baruchel, while not much to look at sounds actually a lot like a young Christian Slater in speech patterning--not the Jack Nicholson phase, but general Slater. He's a little too unsure of himself and that leads to some believability issues, but he is benign enough that you kind of forget he's going to be hero material--but wait! Was he really? I think his love interest deserves a lot of the credit for thwarting evil this day.
It is movie fluff and the not thinking , just watching theory is a solid one.