Jerry Bruckheimer has not one, but two FX-heavy blockbusters hitting next summer — the not-very-promising “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time,” and the Nicolas Cage vehicle “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” about which little has been seen so far. Until this morning, when a trailer for the fantasy adventure, which reunites Bruckheimer and Cage with their “National Treasure” director Jon Turteltaub, debuted over at Apple.
A remake/extension of the Mickey Mouse sequence in Disney’s “Fantasia” (itself based on a poem by Goethe, of all people), the synopsis reads “Balthazar Blake (Nicolas Cage) is a master sorcerer in modern-day Manhattan trying to defend the city from his arch-nemesis, Maxim Horvath (Alfred Molina). Balthazar can’t do it alone, so he recruits Dave Stutler (Jay Baruchel), a seemingly average guy who demonstrates hidden potential, as his reluctant protégé. The sorcerer gives his unwilling accomplice a crash course in the art and science of magic, and together, these unlikely partners work to stop the forces of darkness. It’ll take all the courage Dave can muster to survive his training, save the city and get the girl as he becomes “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.”” So, not much relation to the original animated short, then (although you can see Baruchel’s character wrestling with some broomsticks towards the end of the clip).
Most of what we’ve seen of the CGI blockbusters from next year have looked pretty weak, so we’re as surprised as anyone that this looks more palatable than most of the others we’ve had glimpses of so far. It helps that the trailer is cut by someone other than a brain-damaged 14 year old heavy metal fan (“Clash of the Titans,” we’re looking at you…), but there’s some inventive visuals – the twist on the old ‘car crashes through pane of glass in car chase’ moment is sort of neat – and the cast look decent, with even Nic Cage appearing to resist the urge to chew the scenery, which, in the era of “Knowing” and “Season of the Witch,” is near miraculous. It’s probably just that we were expecting this to be so terrible, but it’s a pleasant surprise that it appears to be closer to an average Harry Potter movie than to “Prince of Persia.” It’s not exactly rocketing up our must-see list (did you see “National Treasure 2?”) but who knows, maybe we’ll end up watching it on cable in a year or two. “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” hits theaters July 16th.
I'm so tired of these 'geeky loser guys save the day' movies.