The Sorcerer's Apprentice

by Pa Rock
Popcorn Muncher

Last night I watched my first in-theatre movie since arriving on Okinawa. The theatre at Kadena is huge and runs several different movies each week on its one screen. It is also very relaxed, in some respects, compared to stateside theatres - with their being no problem at all with me carrying in my large drink from outside. (I did buy their popcorn.) It is very formal and military, though, when it comes to the playing of the national anthem. Everyone is expected to stand at attention until the last note has sounded, and even the squalling brats seem to know that they'd better put a cork in it for a couple of minutes.

Last night's movie was The Sorcerer's Apprentice, a Disney action flick starring Nicholas Cage and Jay Baruchel. Plot in a half-shell: Nick Cage plays an old sorcerer named Balthazar Blake who had been one of three apprentices to Merlin back in the day. His mission is to carry Merlin's dragon ring into the future in search of the Prime Merlinian (ouch!) who, once trained, will have the power to kill the evil Morgana.

Jay Baruchel is the quirky Dave, a twenty-year-old physics student and genius who has his own laboratory in an abandoned subway turnaround far beneath the streets of New York. It turns out that Dave is also the Prime Merlinian (ouch, again!). Dave becomes Balthazar's apprentice and works at learning the magic skills that will help him to defeat one of Merlin's other apprentices - a nasty fellow who became an evil-doer after he and Balthazar both fell in love with Veronica, Merlin's third apprentice.

As convoluted as all of that sounds, the plot is simple and easy to follow. The action is intense, but not something that would give anyone nightmares. There is also a nice coating of humor that is a Disney hallmark. The funniest and most endearing scene in the movie has the bumbling Dave trying to clean up the laboratory before his date arrives. He decides to try and use some of his blossoming sorcerer abilities, and sets the brooms and mops to dancing their way around the lab, a la the original Sorcerer's Apprentice. Dave's attempt at housecleaning without using any personal effort quickly goes out of control with almost disastrous consequences!

The Sorcerer's Apprentice is fun fare. It has action, laughs, and an awfully good performance by Jay Baruchel. The movie was well worth the pleasant evening walk to and from the theatre - and the price of the popcorn!