The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | Release Date: July 14, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
46
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
17
Negative:
7
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
San Francisco ChronicleWalter Addiego
The Sorcerer's Apprentice boils down to "The Karate Kid" meets "Harry Potter," with maybe a dash of "Ghostbusters" to keep it interesting. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe Holleman
A tamer tale of supernatural shenanigans that is far more appropriate for young children than the sometimes too-scary scenes from J.K. Rowling's stories. Read full review
70
Village VoiceNick Pinkerton
Cage will likely not earn a second Oscar here, but he and director Jon Turteltaub (National Treasure) make leftovers into fine PG malarkey with their hokey naïveté and prankish hocus-pocus. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderCliff Doerksen
The tone is both goofier and darker than the Potter pictures, and some of the magic battles built around New York City landmarks are eye-popping; there's also a genuinely affecting romance between Baruchel and fetching newcomer Teresa Palmer. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianM. E. Russell
Turteltaub has a workmanlike touch and an easy sense of humor here, and he and his team do a better-than-expected job of keeping you interested in the story, despite it being yet another Tale of a Reluctant Young Man With A Supernatural Hero's Calling. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
The Sorcerer's Apprentice is too long, and it's ersatz magic, but at least it casts an ersatz spell. Read full review
65
MovielineStephanie Zacharek
Turteltaub strives to show us realistic-looking magic, without realizing he'd be better off if he acknowledged that there's no such thing. Instead, we get human figures that emerge "magically" from swarms of cockroaches and sorceresses who dissolve into dust particles right before our eyes. It's the best CGI money can buy, and who cares? Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The Sorcerer's Apprentice is a perfectly typical example of its type, professionally made and competently acted. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
The CGI is relentless and what you might call reverse-magical: The more we're hit with stuff, the less wondrous it becomes. Read full review
63
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike Scott
As fun as it is at times -- particularly early on -- the longer The Sorcerer's Apprentice goes on, the more the magic wears off. Read full review
60
EmpireIan Nathan
Despite Cage in a snit, it's a likable if functional summer-show. Read full review
60
Boxoffice MagazinePete Hammond
Big and brash with a fantasia of battles and chases thrown in to keep the young ones enthralled for its nearly two-hour running time. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
A frenetic, overstuffed but imaginative fantasy. Read full review
58
Tampa Bay TimesSteve Persall
Baruchel aside, The Sorcerer's Apprentice contains a few minor delights. One is Cage's surprisingly low-key approach to a role that he could be expected to play over the top. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill Goodykoontz
A by-the-numbers, good-vs.-evil tale. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
A flavorless family-friendly action-adventure that doubles as memory exploitation. It has nothing to do with either the Mickey Mouse broom sequence of the same name from 1940's "Fantasia'' or the 213-year-old Goethe poem that inspired it. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
On the whole, the movie is more Cheez Whiz than wizardly. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
While Mr. Molina and Mr. Cage supply a measure of well-compensated eccentricity, their labors ultimately serve to emphasize the grinding mediocrity of the enterprise. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Jennie Punter
The lively verbal sparring between the good and evil sorcerer-apprentice pairs sustains the movie, but, with a predictable plot, by-the-numbers action-movie jolts and no real sense of wonder, The Sorcerer's Apprentice is really just a pumpkin. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The movie isn't so much bad as it is formulaic and uninspired. In some ways, that might almost be a worse sin. Read full review
50
TimeRichard Corliss
Somewhere in recreational value between an afternoon on a San Diego beach and one at a Detroit public swimming pool. Either way, before you know it, it's evening. Read full review
50
NPRScott Tobias
The lesson at the core of Goethe's poem -- that powerful spirits are not to be taken lightly, and should only be conjured by those who can control them -- goes out the window, and the mentor-student relationship gets swallowed up in the action. Bruckheimer may be the dark lord of Tinseltown, but he's the Mickey Mouse of this scenario, and the mops and brooms get the best of him. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Cage is amusingly skanky, Molina is dependably arch, and Baruchel is engagingly down to earth. But do we really need to watch them play out this exhaustingly empty scenario? Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubTasha Robinson
While both actors have been hammier and more hilarious, and neither one overdoes things enough to be notable, they at least seem to be having loads of flailing fun as they conjure up CGI scenery to chew on. And when Apprentice limits itself to their battle, it's generally fitful dumb fun. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
"Apprentice" lurches from one been-there-done-that sequence to another. Read full review
40
VarietyJustin Chang
The magic here feels machine-made and depressingly state-of-the-art. Read full review
40
Time OutDavid Fear
Other than the Pottersploitation and presence of current It nerd Baruchel, this fantasy-action-comedy might have been spat out into multiplexes any summer over the previous two decades, yet it would seem like forgettable abracadabra filler regardless of the date. Read full review
38
Orlando SentinelRoger Moore
A generally joyless pastiche of sorcery history, imitation Potter "chosen one" Messianics and mirthless silliness, it's another in a string of recent black marks against Cage's Oscar-owning reputation. Read full review
38
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
As Balthazar, Cage doesn't disappoint. He's just manic enough to keep the character from becoming too predictable. Read full review
38
USA TodayClaudia Puig
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. Read full review
38
PremiereJohn DeVore
This booming, cartoonish confection is a transparent attempt to take a property Disney owns rights to, and to try and create a Harry Potter-like franchise. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
If there were any brooms in Disney's new Sorcerer's Apprentice they would have to be used to sweep this tired dreck to the curb. Read full review
25
New York PostKyle Smith
A two-hour trailer: explosion, shape-shift, chase, wisecrack, repeat. Its most amazing trick will be how it vanishes from your memory before the seat you vacate has stopped moving. Read full review
25
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Cage and Baruchel work hard to stay accessible, but the computer-generated effects come on like heavy artillery blowing away any hint of flesh and blood. The Sorcerer's Apprentice should be rated U for Untouched by Human Hands. Read full review
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