There’s one main reason I went to see The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. I mean sure it was done by the same folks who did National Treasure — which I loved — but that wasn’t it. I wanted to see how Dresden Filesey it was. What do I mean by this? Well, look at this still from the movie and this book cover from one of the Dresden Files books. See where I’m going? It was with these moderate expectations in mind that I went to see The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, so please read on to read what I thought.

In the beginning, we’re treated to an intoduction to the history of the three main sorcerer’s involved with the movie, Balthazar (Nicolas Cage), Horvath (Alfred Molina) and Veronica (Monica Bellucci). They are all students to the legendary Merlin. However, when Merlin is killed by Morgana LeFay (Alice Krige) — after being betrayed by Horvath — Veronica merges with her in order to contain her, and puts herself into a Russian nesting doll to contain Morgana. Balthazar takes Merlin’s ring and proceeds to search for the “Prime Merlinian,” the only sorcerer who can defeat Lefay. After over a thousand years, Balthazar has trapped the other “Morganians”, including Horvath, into nesting dolls as well, on his search to find the Prime Merlinian.

Cut to ten years ago, wherein we meet Dave, a typical ten year old kid living in New York City who is, again, typically just starting to like girls. The one girl in question is Becky, a pretty blond who actually seems to dig Dave. When Dave writes her a note, which gets blown away into an odd looking shop, he meets up with Balthazar, who gives him the ring to try out, as he’s done with children for a thousand years. The ring latches onto Dave, pegging him as the Prime Merlinian. Sadly, Horvath escapes his prison and, in the ensuing fight with Balthazar, they both get trapped for ten years.

Ten years later, the real fun begins when both Balthazar and Horvath finally escape their prison. Balthazar has to locate Dave once again and teach him to be a sorcerer. Without giving away the rest of the story — as much of what I’ve just said can be gleaned from the previews — I will say that The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is a fun, light, funny movie that’s full of action, heart and adventure.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is a very fun film, with a lot of humor. Say what you want about Nicholas Cage, but he did a fantastic job as the old, sarcastic, lovelorn Balthazar. Alfred Molina, one could tell, had a fantastic time playing the pimped out Horvath. The real star of the show, however, is Jay Baruchel as David. I don’t recall seeing him in anything before, but he was fantastic in this role. His comic timing is great, and he and Cage really worked well off of each other.

If there was a downside, it’s that the “love story” portion of the film, well, both of them, really. I’ve nothing against Teresa Palmer (Adult Becky) or Monica Bellucci (except that her voice grates me a bit), but these portions of the film felt a bit forced. I mean, David and Becky don’t kiss until the last 2-3 minutes of the film. What’s up with THAT?

Overall, though, if you’re looking for a fun, light, funny and adventerous action film, you can do a lot worse than The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. It’s got great acting, a fun story that doesn’t weigh down the film or get in its way, a lot of humor and fantastic action. It won’t win any awards, sure, and I’m not sure it’ll do well enough for a proposed sequel (stay until the end of the credits), but it’ll definitely be something I buy, day one, on Blu-ray.