A Geeky Yet Charming 'Apprentice'

by Brett Parker

Growing up in my youth, my favorite kind of fantasy films were the ones where extraordinary things happened to ordinary kids just like me. It was great fun watching ordinary young people, who had crushes on girls, massive amount of homework, and big dreams, being whisked away to breathless adventures in which they faced perilous danger, nail-biting chases, and otherworldly sights. Titles like The Goonies and Flight of the Navigator spring to mind. I was thrilled by the idea that normal dudes like me could quite possibly be plucked from suburban normalcy and thrown into the kind of fantastical adventure that could only happen in the movies. Of course, it was always reassuring to know that no matter what threats or dangers the young hero faced, he would always end up safely back at home with a big smile and an even bigger sense of confidence.

As we arrive at mid-summer in the blockbuster movie season, it's easy to label The Sorcerer's Apprentice, the new fantasy ride from Jerry Bruckheimer and the National Treasure team, as a disposable, CGI-heavy moneymaker, which it more or less is. However, I found the film had a nostalgic charm reminiscent of the very fantasy films I just described from my younger years. As the film centers on the nerdy everyman charms of the shy string-bean Jay Baruchel, I was reminded of the protagonists of the live action Disney movies I enjoyed back in the day. Here's a soulless popcorn movie revolved around a dude who wears his soul right on his sleeve. His geeky charm becomes the movie's saving grace.

The film opens with a prologue in the King Arthur days centered around the legendary wizard Merlin (James A. Stephens), with his apprentices battling over his mystical powers. The evil Horvath (Alfred Molina) wants to be the most powerful wizard, leading him to team up with an evil sorceress named Morgana (Alice Krige). The virtuous apprentice Balthazar (Nicolas Cage) vows to put a stop to the evil duo and does so by encasing them in an ancient doll that will serve as their prison. As he carries out this plan, however, his lady love Veronica (Monica Bellucci) becomes trapped in the doll along with the villains and Merlin becomes fatally wounded in the process. Before he dies, the powerful wizard tells Balthazar that a successor containing Merlin's powers shall materialize one day and must learn his sorcerer ways in order to protect the universe. Merlin had cast a spell on all of his apprentices to stay young forever, allowing Balthazar to carry out his search for the next great sorcerer over the next few centuries.

Time passes and Balthazar has searched over many continents for the one who fits the profile of Merlin's successor. His search ends in New York City when he meets Dave (Baruchel), a painfully shy college student who is an expert in physics and social awkwardness. Dave lacks tact and self-confidence but nonetheless shows every tell-tale sign of being the next great sorcerer. In Dave's private studying quarters, Balthazar decides to teach Dave everything he knows so that he can get in touch with his inner-Merlin. Dave will have to learn quickly, for pretty soon Horvath is unleashed from his ancient prison and plans to destroy life on this planet as we know it. Can Dave overcome his personal defects and find his inner-sorcerer? Does this science nerd have what it takes to defeat one of the most powerful sorcerers in history?

The idea of modern-day sorcerers could make for a very plucky movie, but The Sorcerer's Apprentice only allows the simple thrills you would expect from a PG-rated-live-action-Disney summer-blockbuster ride. That means everything is reduced to candy-coated CGI effects that would only be of great excitement to kids under 10. The idea of evil dragons and giant eagles flying around could be exciting but have a mundane feel to it this time. Even the film's climactic save-the-world battle is reduced to a hand-grown laser beam fight that hasn't been original since Superman II. One effects sequence I really enjoyed was a trip through Mirror World, where everything is reversed as it would be in a mirror (in this case: all of Times Square). For those who haven't figured it out yet, this film is inspired by the Mickey Mouse sequence in Fantasia and there's a fun little scene here that pays homage to it. Like Mickey, Dave tries to magically make mops and brooms clean up his room without any human hands touching them. The music may be a bit different but the hilarity of the results are about the same.

Nicolas Cage, of course, has developed into one of the most eccentric actors we've ever known. In the past, he's gone so far over the top that he's sailed past the Milky Way while eating a banana. I think only Cage could make a whacked-out ancient sorcerer from Manhattan feel lived in. Here's a guy who's never had to strain to look cooky, and that serves this role perfectly. But this being Disney and all, he's not allowed to let his freak flag fly as wildly as you wished he could. Don't want to scare the kiddies. Could you imagine if Cage was as whacked out here as he was in Bad Lieutenant? Children would be running for the Exit while the grown-ups laughed hysterically! But hey, I'm sure it serves the role well that Cage could let loose bizarre insanity but holds back to keep a straight face. That's probably true of most sorcerers.

I never would've thought that Dustin Hoffman's performance in The Graduate would plant the seed for our current crop of Hollywood leading men, but let's face it, we are living in the shy-guy era! Geeky actors like Michael Cera and Jesse Eisenberg are flinging their inadequacies and awkwardness in every direction and audiences are eating it up. Leading men used to get all the girls, now they have no idea how to even talk to girls. I suppose John Cusack helped spawn this trend with his everyman earnestness, but at least he had, you know, game! Anyways, of this current crop of dweebs, I would have to pick Jay Baruchel as my champion. He's certainly the funniest-looking and appears to have the most depth of comic charm. The important thing is that he conveys a genuine nice-guy quality; you want to root for him. It says something that for all the film's magic and effects, the most interesting scenes are the ones where he tries to court his biggest crush Becky (Teresa Palmer, conveying equal measures of beauty and sweetness), an adorable blonde who is eventually won over by the big goof. As are we.

Even though we're on the level of a PG-rated pop ride, at least everyone involved holds steady rank. Director Jon Turtletaub (Cool Runnings, National Treasure) knows he's just having some Hollywood fun and keeps things on a poppy, inoffensive level of formalism. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer demonstrates his usual relentless need to please the audience, from it's reliable New York City location to the hipster-rock soundtrack. Alfred Molina attacks his cartoonish role like a true, dignified professional while Toby Kebbell brings the same sense of zany silliness he possessed in Rocknrolla to the role of Horvath's magician sidekick, Drake Stone. Plus it's always nice to see Monica Bellucci in focus, so there's something!

So The Sorcerer's Apprentice may be a disposable family-friendly flick, but you know what? So we're many of those fun fantasy flicks I saw as a kid. I ate them up with an intense joy and I suspect young kids just might do the same with this one. It's hero acts like a kid again, which in turn made me feel like a kid again, and its not every movie that can do that well, so I'll give this one the pass! It may get tiring watching flying creatures and magical powers over time, but it may never get old watching the nice guy win the cute blonde.

'Inception': Mind-Blowing Head Trip

by Brett Parker

Christopher Nolan is a filmmaker who likes to create cinematic games that deeply challenge the psyche of the characters who play them. Whether it's a man battling short-term memory-loss or a cop suffering from insomnia, Nolan's characters obsessively trudge through his mazes while complexities of the human mind fester underneath. His latest film, Inception, has to be the most elaborate and creative play on this cinematic ideal. As Nolan paints characters who can literally walk through dreams buried within the subconscious, he unleashes his most brilliant and literal exploration yet of the dark recesses of the human brain.

Inception imagines a world in which technology exists to enter people's minds through the dream state. If a person is heavily sedated, then a suitcase-sized device can allow outsiders to invade the subjects' dream and create an environment in which their deep secrets can be discovered. An extractor named Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) abuses this technology by stealing people's ideas and selling them to big businesses. Cobb can work his way around the unstable environments of lucid dreams better than almost anyone and, along with his expert aide Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), can find almost any secret buried within the subconscious. However, Cobb's experiments within the dreamworld created big problems that has made him a fugitive in his home of America and estranged from his two children.

One day, Cobb encounters a wealthy corporate man named Saito (Ken Watanabe) who promises to help repair his past. Saito assures Cobb he can make his charges in America disappear if he performs an act of Inception; instead of stealing an idea from a subject's mind, an idea is to be planted there. The mark is Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy), the wealthy heir to a corporate empire. Saito wants Cobb and his associates to plant an idea in Fischer's head that will dismantle his worldwide empire. However, Inception is a highly risky and dangerous procedure, for it involves delving deeper into levels of the subconscious than most players can handle. With the help of a forger thief (Tom Hardy) and a brilliant architect (Ellen Page), Cobb and his team plunge deep within the world of Fisher's head, a world that involves lethal shoot-outs, zero-gravity, a snowy fortress, and the ghost of Cobb's deceased wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard), stirring up deadly trouble. Can Cobb and his associates plant an inception before being trapped in a deep subconscious limbo?

What is first and foremost impressive about Inception is how wholly original this world appears to be. Even though specific shades of other films can be hinted at (particularly The Matrix), we truly do feel like we are looking at a cinematic landscape we've never seen before. Nolan has brought to the unstable and abstract nature of the dreamworld a strict logic that uses everything we've even researched or realized about human dreams to create a specific universe filled with detailed and fascinating rules. Even though this film plays on formalities of a heist film and certain action-thriller standards, it'd be such a gross disservice to confine this film to broad genre outlines. Here's a film that doesn't depend on “killing the bad guy” or “disarming the bomb” but instead focuses on penetrating multiple levels of the subconscious and synchronizing your actions so that you can simultaneously awaken throughout all layers and return to complete consciousness. Sound confusing? Well Nolan maps out the logic of the plot with great attentiveness. Sure, you have to pay close attention to every minute detail, but so fascinating is the world Nolan has painted, you'll be absorbed by every exciting aspect thrown your way.

Since pretty much anything can happen within a dream, almost anything can happen within the world of Inception, liberating it from mundane predictability. As these brainy thieves run amok through other people's dreams, we're treated to such wild visuals as a train pummeling through a city street, a Parisian street folding upside down on itself, a hotel hallway tilting sideways, sleeping bodies floating in zero gravity, and a decaying city crumbling at the edge of an ocean. These visuals complement the elaborate logic of the plot wonderfully, and since these strokes of creativity can come from any angle, the film constantly keeps us on our toes and glued to the screen from start to finish.

Leonardo DiCaprio plays up his finely-tuned confidence and intensity to fit the mold of a Nolan protagonist quite nicely. Like all of Nolan's flawed heroes, Cobb is a man obsessive in his quest, consumed by guilt, haunted by heartbreak. Nolan's men are usually haunted by a past love, one that puts a heavy strain on both their hearts and their already clouded minds. The ghost of Mal constantly taunts and haunts Cobb in his dreamworld as he battles constantly with the blurred lines between dreams and reality. The men in Nolan's world hope that their rigorous journey to make sense of things will bring them some kind of closure, but the brilliance of this filmmaker is the idea that the end result is always shrouded in some kind of ambiguity. There's no easy way out from heart ache and the darkness that haunts the mind (The film's final shot puts a serious skewer on any idea of a complete happy ending for Cobb).

Indeed, each film of Nolan's deals with a specific aspect of the mind that can plague most men. He's dealt with revenge (Memento), guilt (Insomnia), fear (Batman Begins), jealous egotism (The Prestige), madness (The Dark Knight), and now with Inception, he has covered the idea of perception. Cobb is a man so caught up in the dreamworld that he himself has confused it for his actual reality. What constitutes reality? If something feels deeply tangible to us, is that enough to justify it as reality? What if there is a deeper level of truth we haven't perceived yet? The main conflict within the Mal character is the idea that maybe everything is a projection from our minds and there is underlying levels of revelations we have yet to perceive. If our idea of reality is built within our minds, then whats to say that dreams aren't as tangible as our reality?

These questions probably only scratch the surface of Inception's underlying ideals. The beauty of the film is that endless analysis can be sprung from within the subtext. Dream logic, in itself, has inspired many broad theories and specific ideas over the years. Since Inception is so intuitive to a wide range dream research, countless theories and ideas can be pulled from this film for years to come. You'll be deeply rewarded on repeat viewings and will probably find new things that will redefine the film for you each time you watch it. Since the film takes place mostly within dreams, you can never be too sure that everything is what it seems or that it even takes place in reality at all (a climactic conversation between Cobb and Mal as well as a shot of an old couple walking through a dream city threw me for a loop and will certainly need revisiting).

Since the very nature of dreams can be surreal and trippy, part of me wonders if Inception could've been more surreal and trippy. Should this material have gone way more off-the-rails? Shouldn't it have dealt with the erotic and the nightmarish aspects of dreams more? Could abstract directors such as David Lynch or Richard Kelly go further down the rabbit hole than Nolan does? Perhaps, but it's important to realize that Nolan is not out to confuse, but to challenge and entertain; two things that can be rarely seen in the same package. The great achievement of Inception is the way it presents a supreme challenge to our intellect while still delivering an adventurous and exciting thrill ride. The film could be a turning point in proving that audiences can handle complex and ambiguous philosophical thoughts within the context of a Hollywood action-thriller. Here's a rare action-adventure where the ideas are way more exciting than the action.

The 'Airbender' Needs Acting Lessons

by Brett Parker

The usual arc for most filmmakers shows that their films improve as their work increases. Unfortunately for M. Night Shyamalan, his quality of work seems to be digressing considerably. After the enourmous success of the horror hit The Sixth Sense, he unveiled Unbreakable, Signs, and The Village, three supernatural dramas I found to be powerhouse wonders. Shakiness began brewing for Shyamalan when he brought us Lady in the Water, a fairy tale of of creativity and ambition, yet one that crumbled under its own incoherency and absurdity. Shyamalan tried to return to form with The Happening, but it instead showcased Shyamalan losing his grip when it comes to acting and dialogue.

Now the Hollywood helmer is attempting to reclaim his glory in a genre he has never dealt with before: the fantasy epic. The Last Airbender is his adaptation of the popular Nickelodeon cartoon series in which mythical people can control the four elements. From observing the cartoon's premise, we see how it can serve Shyamalan's themes of ordinary people dealing with the extraordinary and the acknowledgment of a spiritual universe and the forces it provides. What could have been a wonderful display of growth for Shyamalan has turned into something of a mess; an example of how he would probably be better off staying far, far, away from this genre for the rest of his career. It could've elevated his gift for fusing the emotional with the supernatural, but the acting, the dialogue, and the essential plot give us nothing to sink our hooks into.

The film takes place sometime in the future, where the modern world as we know it has crumbled and the Earth has been redivided among nations that represent the four elements: earth, wind, fire, and water. There are certain numbers of humans who have the special ability to manipulate these elements to their will; these people are called “benders” and hold the most power on the planet. It is said that a being known as the Avatar can bring ultimate harmony between the nations, for it is the only one who could master all of the elements at once. However, the Avatar has been missing for quite sometime and this has allowed the fearsome Fire Nation to rise up and try to conquer the world, Evil Empire style.

We meet two sibling waterbenders named Katara (Nicola Peltz) and Sokka (Jackson Rathbone) who one day find a mysterious boy named Aang (Noah Ringer) unconscious below a layer of ice. It turns out that Aang is the last of the airbenders who has been mysteriously frozen in time while his own people vanished at the hands of the Fire Nation. It is believed that Aang was meant to be the Avatar before his emotions got the best of him and he ran away. Katara and Sokka make him realize that he must learn and obtain the powers of the Avatar of the world as they all know it shall be destroyed. As Aang and his new friends go off in search of his mythic destiny, a vengeful firebender named Prince Zuko (Dev Patel) furiously pursues him for his own selfish needs.

I sure hope I got everything I just wrote correct! The Last Airbender doesn't exactly feel like the most comprehensive epic I've ever seen. Of course the first rule to presenting any fantasy universe is to make that specific world as entertainingly comprehensive as possible. Sometimes fantasy worlds can get way too caught up in their own mythical logic, alienating innocent moviegoers. What makes fantasy series like Star Wars and Lord of the Rings so popular and enduring is the fact that they focus on the human elements first and allow the elaborate plots to take care of themselves. They prove that a film can be stuffed with elves, goblins, ewoks, wookies, and hobbits, yet still hold a human dimension of emotions with universal appeal. Lord of the Rings, especially, may have had fantastical visuals and enormous adventure, but it was the fact that almost all of the mythical characters held the same fears and vulnerabilities as us humans that truly made it a special work.

The Last Airbender shows traces of humanity but they seem impossible to engage mainly because the main child stars, our essential guides through this world, give really bad performances. I'm talking really bad! This has to be among the worst collective child star work I've ever seen in a Hollywood film. Part of the problem is that the dialogue is meant to be presented in an ancient world dialect yet the kids use their modern world voices, making every piece of dialogue sound like a train wreck. These kids show all the mastery of a sixth-grader in their very fist school play. Perhaps in a more contemporary, simplistic film, these kids could be engaging, but they come across as jaw-droppingly horrid here. Perhaps the fault for these performances could be placed on Shyamalan. Spike Lee once alluded that directors are directly responsible for any bad performances in their films. Shyamalan certainly doesn't provide any colorful dialogue or human dimensions for his characters. The most developed and most interesting performance comes from Patel as the sinister Fire Prince, but even he seems like too much of an everyman to master an operatic villian.

Shyamalan's greatest strength as a filmmaker has been to sneak supernatural elements into the everyday world of realistic characters. Here he tries to sneak realistic emotions into a supernatural environment and fails miserably. He usually presents things from a human standpoint, allowing the supernatural elements to absorb us as they would in reality. There isn't a trace of that skill here and the film suffers considerably. Shyamalan seems too caught up in this preposterous plot and its shallow genre elements to engage us with his trademark technical mastery. The alluring moods he is known for conveying feel curiously absent this time out and had they been present, we might actually care about this world. Traces of Shyamalan's earlier work can be sensed in the plot: an everyman's journey towards becoming a superman reminds us of Unbreakable while the characters unease and philosophizing about destiny and faith has the feeling of Signs. Yet those earlier films had an intimate attention to character detail and tension-building pacing that is completely non-existent here. Perhaps Shyamalan bit off more than he could chew when took on this commercial vehicle.

If there's one element of the film that does hold dazzling creative juice, it's the action scenes. As the benders shape their elements to attack their enemies in a mystical kung-fu style, the action scenes take on a kind of new-age-martial-arts-for-the-CGI-era that does, in fact, work on the big screen. Shyamalan films these elaborate effects sequences in wide-angle long-takes that allows us to actually take in the action instead of chopping it up into a frantic quick-cutting style. As these child warriors bounce around their enemies throwing glowing orbs of their forceful elements, we actually find some excitement within this fantasy muck. We realize that if Shyamalan held a more wicked sense of humor, then The Last Airbender could've been one hell of a cheesy B-Movie kung-fu flick. Kung-fu movies were founded on preposterous plotlines that served as an excuse to serve elaborate fight scenes shrouded in mythic energy. Perhaps if Shyamalan devoted more energy and screen time to the fight scenes instead of the ridiculous plotting, then we might have had some giddy popcorn fun!

Shyamalan is a director who can make the fantastical feel plausible and the ridiculous seem gripping, so it's somewhat surprising that he can't pull off that hat trick with The Last Airbender. I wouldn't so much call it his worst film yet as much as the one most devoid of his acquired cinematic gifts. I'm afraid only real young fans of the cartoon series will find any interest in the adaptation. It's almost like an M. Night Shyamalan movie for people who don't like M. Night Shyamalan movies at all. And even those people would still probably reject this movie.