Magically terrible

This is a fantasy adventure of disingenuous proportions and if you're in to magic and mischief then this is a film you might just enjoy... however, if you are over 13-years of age then the chances are you'll leave the cinema feeling disappointed.

I love Nicholas Cage, I think he's made some really great films even if he does tend to play the same kind of roles. With that said, I was not a big fan of his performance in this movie. He was dry, flat and didn't hold my attention for very long.

To set the scene the adventure starts in 700 AD, with a lethargic voice-over giving the audience some background information about the title character Balthazar Blake.

Balthazar, Maxim Horvath and Veronica are trusted apprentices to the world's greatest sorcerer, Merlin. He teaches them everything he knows about magic and how to use it responsibly and the three young apprentices are sworn to protect the mystic secrets of sorcerers.

Since the plot is fairly stagnant for the first part it really does seem to pick up when Horvath betrays them to Merlin's greatest enemy, Morgana. Why is Morgana such a bad person you ask? It could have something to do with the fact that she has been trying to learn an evil spell to awake the dead and control them ... But honestly, who wouldn't want an army of Zombies to do their bidding?!

Morgana overpowers Merlin with Horvath's help, and, unfortunately for Merlin, all the magic in the world can't protect you from being stabbed! As he lay dying he gives Balthazar a metal dragon telling him that it would find his successor, and only he could finish Morgana completely.

Centuries pass and Balthazar is frantically looking for someone to take Merlin's place, then he meets Dave Stutler, a young man who is down on his luck, but has a special quality about him ... could he be the one Balthazar has been searching for?

My biggest problem with this film is that at times it seems like the action sequences have just been thrown in at random intervals to give the characters something to do and make the film last much longer than it should. There are a lot of ideas and themes floating around, but none of them really stick with you.

There is also an overtly clichŽ sub-plot about how people are capable of more than they think when they believe in themselves. Usually I love that kind of thing but here it just didn't grab me because it's all handled so sloppily.

Any possibility for an emotional ending is lost thanks to the bland dialogue and lack of character development.

When the film ended I had the desire to learn magic myself ... so I could make the writers, director and cast disappear, never to offend me with such a poor film ever again!