Metascore

Mixed or average reviews - based on 34 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 129 Ratings

  • Starring: Alfred Molina, Jay Baruchel, Monica Bellucci, Nicolas Cage
  • Summary: Balthazar Blake is a master sorcerer in modern-day Manhattan trying to defend the city from his arch-nemesis, Maxim Horvath. Balthazar can't do it alone, so he recruits Dave Stutler, a seemingly average guy who demonstrates hidden potential, as his reluctant protégé. The sorcerer gives his u 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." (Walt Disney Pictures) Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 34
  2. Negative: 7 out of 34
  1. The Sorcerer's Apprentice boils down to "The Karate Kid" meets "Harry Potter," with maybe a dash of "Ghostbusters" to keep it interesting.
  2. Reviewed by: Ian Nathan
    60
    Despite Cage in a snit, it's a likable if functional summer-show.
  3. A frenetic, overstuffed but imaginative fantasy.
  4. Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    38
    The movie is a clunky, noisy contraption. Director Jon Turteltaub piles on gadgets and devices in the hopes we'll be dazzled enough to miss the story's lack of coherence and charm.

See all 34 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 34 out of 45
  2. Negative: 5 out of 45
  1. 10
    I found this an enjoyable movie and definitely worth watching the acting from the cast was good and the storyline was satisfactory. i would definitely recommend the movie to people as i can see no reason why anyone shouldn't enjoy it Expand
  2. RadeM.
    8
    My girlfriend, my sister and I really liked this movie, and we are in late twenties. It reminded us of childhood. It has funny moments, not too many slow moments and a predictable story that was told in a good and interesting way. In fact everything we expected from this movie we've got in the end. My sister even asked me if there would be a sequel! :) Expand
  3. ChadS
    7
    From a park bench, Balthazar(Nicolas Cage), a former nesting doll prisoner enjoying his first meal in a thousand years, can see that Becky(Teresa Palmer), a college radio deejay who is heading toward the subway after a night of indie rock proselytizing, is clearly out of Dave's league, so he waves a pickle(it's not an especially large pickle) at his apprentice because he knows a little overcompensation couldn't hurt the physics nerd's chances for an intimate relationship. What if she's a size queen? And boy, does Dave(Jay Baruchel) overcompensate big time, as the bling on his finger turns the one-time laughingstock of the fifth grade into a powerful conjurer of magic, which more than makes up for the boy's slight physique and small "pickle". Right away, the ring pays off dividends, when Dave apprehends a mugger who had just stolen Becky's bling that had belonged to her grandmother, and as a result, proves Balthazar right since now the NYU student positions himself as a potential suitor. At first, Dave overcompensates with brains(good enough to be her good friend), when he restores the radio station's low wattage signal, enabling Becky to broadcast her show. (She seems more Maroon 5 than Fleet Foxes.) But now that Dave understands what being the Prime Meridian could entail, this seemingly unapproachable girl is no longer out of his league. There's a small problem, though. Telling a beautiful girl that you're the second coming of Merlin, in most cases, would be an automatic dealbreaker, and this is where "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" errs dramatically. The film should have established an interim period in which Becky thinks Dave's childhood tormentors were right to dismiss the boy as a weirdo(the incident at Arcana Cabana). It would have made the final sequence of action all the more galvanizing, in which she'd realize that the Tesla boy was telling her the truth. But Becky learns about Dave's secret at the wrong time, rendering his pronouncement into an anti-climactic reveal. That's because Cage is the star, so the apprentice's desperate need to overcome his shortcomings can't upstage Balthazar's second chance at love with Veronica(Monica Belucci). As Dave withstands Morgan's best shot, then, in return, goes on the offensive, the filmmaker needs Becky for corresponding reaction shots, but since "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" never loses focus on the relationship between teacher and student, it's Balthazar's reaction shots that matter. Had Becky witnessed Dave's duel to the death with Morgan(Alice Krige), Baruchel would have stolen the movie away from Cage. Collapse
  4. Man, is it just me or does Mr. Cage desperately need money? His performance in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" is hurried and unusually weak, followed by the idiotic story and dialogue disney motion pictures threw in. In other words, the movie is a terrible blockbuster (LOL, considering the money it earned its not even considered a blockbuster). Expand

See all 45 User Reviews