Sunday, April 14, 2013

Movie Review: The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Title: The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Author: Disney
Genre: Fantasy, Sci-Fi
My Rating: *
Official Rating: PG
Age Group: 16+

Summary -
Long ago, in the time of King Arthur, the great sorcerer Merlin defeated the evil Morgan Le Fay and trapped her in a doll. The act killed him, and with his dying breath he commanded his three apprentices to find the Prime Merlinean who would ultimately defeat Morgana.
Fast-forward about 1300 years... Balthazar Blake, the only faithful apprentice, is still searching for the Prime Merlinean in New York City. He finally discovers him in the form of a very nerdy, very wimpy boy: Dave. And Dave adamantly refuses to get mixed up in the magic war raging around him. That is, until Balthazar practically kidnaps him.

The Good -
Dave eventually overcomes his own self-consciousness and becomes brave enough to fight the evil that has been unleashed on the world.

The Bad -
There was a bit of minor swearing, including one softly-muttered b***h.
Dave falls in love with a girl that he knew in grade-school. While the romance is usually sweet, at the end they kiss very passionately. He suggests that they run away to Paris (with no mention of marriage).
There is some violence, but it is usually confined to sorcerer's duels.
The main problem with the movie is the magic that runs helter-skelter throughout the whole thing. In a movie about sorcerer's, it's pretty inevitable that there will be magic, but this magic was not fairy-tale magic. It was full-blown Satanic babble. Balthazar does explain that sorcerer's have the capacity to manipulate matter because they are able to use 100% of their brain power instead of just 10% like normal humans. This concept, however, gets buried beneath the obviously occult symbolism that pervades the movie. We see pentagrams, pictures of a magician tattooed with other evil symbols, a picture of him being worshipped by a woman, and his house is full of other evil things. Merlin states at the beginning that they are mere servants of a greater power. Morgana chants in Latin (although I wasn't able to translate the whole thing, it was basically Morgana calling the spirits of the dead to rise) and we see long-dead sorcerer's begin to come back to life. Several character's become possessed by Morgana's soul.

My Opinion -
My review is extremely incomplete mainly because I didn't want to have to go back and rewatch the movie in order to catalogue everything that was wrong with it. My "bad" list could go on for pages if I did.
I really don't recommend this movie for any age group. Besides the obvious evil of the Satanic magic gunk, the story-line and the characters were just blah. It was not a good movie. I'm sure there was something redemptive about it somewhere, but I just couldn't see it.
I'm sorry if this review is more subjective than it should be, but I have big issues with magic unless it's the fairy-tale kind, so I tend to be biased. If you watched this movie and liked it, I give you full permission to rant at me in the comment box.

2 comments:

grandma jane said...

Glad you posted this. I've never been a huge fan of Disney and can add this to why. Seriously, sometimes I wonder just who they are making the films for....

Anonymous said...

Eh, they've made a few good movies recently, but I agree... some of their stuff is just creepy. Watch classic Disney if you want something good. :)