I’ve always been a huge fan of Nicolas Cage he generally makes a good to great pop corn summer movie and match him up with “blow em up good” expert Jerry Bruckheimer add in elements of fantasy and magic and we have a surefire good time. What the heck happened? The movie never seems to take off. It starts off well, when we first meet Young Dave (Jake Cherry) he seems like a likeable enough kid we get to watch him crush on the girl of his dreams but a funny thing happens, he loses a note that asks the girl to be his girlfriend. The scene of him chasing the note through the streets of New York seems to go on too long and seem a little convoluted that the little piece of paper leads him to his first meeting with Sorcerer “Supreme” Balthazar (Cage) who has spent 1,000 years searching for the one person who can take on the legacy of Merlin.
After this encounter the movie jumps 10 years ahead where we meet 20-year-old Dave (Jay Baruchel) who has gone from being a self assured kid to a nervous, whiney Nerd who still talks about how this one little incident when he was ten years old ruined his life. You would think his witnessing Wizard fight between Balthazar and his arch nemesis Horvath (Alfred Molina) would have tramatized him for life, but no you’d be wrong, it’s the fact that everyone in his class, gasped, laughed at him did.
Cage is decent in this, but at times it felt like he was phoning it in. The movie falls apart because Jay Baruchel is not a good enough actor to carry a movie. He’s boring, has no “It” factor and is just too much of a “geek.” No one wants to watch a movie where every scene has him whining and stuttering through all of his lines. As much as we all like to rip on Michael Cera for not being able to act, he is at least watchable and likeable. There’s no chemistry between him and Cage or he and his love interest Becky (Teresa Palmer).
Director Jon Turteltaub (National Treasure and the TV Series Jericho) seems to run out of steam halfway through the film, it starts with some interesting displays of magic but doesn’t really develop the world or the craft beyond some simple fire spells and a car chase where they used magic to transfigure their vehicles. He just doesn’t have much of a visual flair. The sets are bland looking warehouses and the color scheme is various shades of drab brown and black. I know I said Cage phoned it in at certain points, but he really is the best thing about this movie, it could have worked if it centered around him and not Dave.
I don’t hate this movie, it’ll be a perfectly fine movie to watch when it comes to cable, but definitely not something to run out and see in a theater.
Final Grade C
EM Review by
Michelle Alexandria
Originally posted 7.16.2010