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Borrowing Merlin’s name and then building its mythology from there, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is a flashy, breezy, well-calibrated summer blockbuster that delivers the familiar points expected of a summer popcorn flick directed at the Disney kids. While the more cerebral viewers will be heading to Inception and the sci-fi nerds might be watching Predators again, the people who were watching Eclipse in the last few weeks can get their kicks from this pleasing little offering.

This isn’t to say that this movie isn’t worth watching. It’s that it is directed at a specific audience. And when you consider the rather simple themes and movements that the film employs, then it’s clear that it is rather good at what it tries to do, within that limited attempt.

It begins with the three apprentices of Merlin, played by Nicholas Cage, Monica Bellucci, and Alfred Molina. Molina's Horvath betrays Merlin in favor of Morgana. In the battle that ensues (delivered via a quick VO’d prologue) Merlin is slain and Cage’s Balthazar manages to imprison Morgana, but at the cost of also imprisoning Monica Bellucci's Veronica. As Merlin is dying he bequeaths his magic ring to Balthazar, who is then tasked to fight the “Morganians” (I know, they could have thought of something better and infinitely more frightening than that) while walking the Earth in search of The Prime Merlinian (okay, better naming with that one, but not by much) who will be the only one who has the power to vanquish Morgana once and for all.

And if you’ve seen the trailers, you know that this great responsibility falls on the lanky shoulders of perpetual man-child Jay Baruchel. Baruchel, who’s been playing a college kid for almost ten years now (he was playing a freshman in Undeclared in 2001 and now he’s only playing a sophomore or junior, which puts him way ahead of Michael Cera in the Perpetual Man-Child race) is a good choice, as he’s always been likable and used his geek persona to gain sympathy for his characters. Here, he plays the reluctant hero, David, in the classic Hero’s Journey formula.

It seemed inevitable that a Hero’s Journey would be applied to this film, as the elements of the fantastic, wizardry, and training were apparent. What should have been different were the twists and turns that could be taken along this journey. Unfortunately, the entirety of the film adheres to this model, hitting the familiar points and moving into too-often-traveled territory.

Rather than doing anything new with content, the film relies on the charm of Baruchel, the hamminess of Cage, and the physics+magic nerdiness that leads to magical romantic scenes (which could have benefited from better song choice, but maybe that’s just me being a music snob). The two actors deliver. The physics+magic gimmick worked for me. And there was genuine novelty in the Tesla Coil-driven courtship scene. And yet, it seemed clear that this was not going to be enough to make this move really matter.

Instead of being more concerned with depth and meaning, director John Turtletaub chose to fill this movie with thrill-a-minute CG-driven effects sequences. (When you think about it that way, it comes as no surprise that this is a Bruckheimer production.)

These are executed generally well. Unlike the first few Harry Potter flicks that didn’t look too good with people just waving wands around, this gets magic combat right. The physical environment plays a substantial part in the combat, and though it is cartoonish at times, there is a sense of weight to the things happening. And there are some nifty visual tricks that we are shown.

The movie also throws in a number of homage. A little Star Wars allusion gets ruined when the movie underestimates its viewers and lays out the joke, but then a Fantasia scene with cleaning implements gone awry works quite well.

That’s more than can be said for the training sequences that felt a bit light. The way that David was trained wasn’t really anything interesting and extraordinary. What you see in the trailers is what you get. The least we could have gotten was some training to rival The Karate Kid, but instead we have a lot of moping and self doubt and bickering about love and duty.

Granted, self doubt is part of the Hero’s Journey, but it seems that it’s piled on way too thick here, and then resolved all too quickly. For all David’s brilliance, he is supposed to be a mess. Through the course of the film his being a mess is supposed to transition into his becoming a sorcerer. And while the film does take him to the point where he becomes a sorcerer, it seems that it does so because that’s just how things are. It does not seem like an inevitability. As such his sudden abilities don’t feel quite earned, either in film by the character, or by the film itself.

The film moves at a generally break-neck speed to ensure that there won’t be much questioning as to the logic or development of it. David’s becoming The One seems to happen in about a week’s time if not less. This I found hard to believe. Now I was willing to believe that you could trap people in urns, that gargoyles could be animated into cool flying creatures, that you could take a pack of wolves in a calendar and animate them into real life, and then turn them into wolf pups, but I just felt that the movie had to earn its character developments and it failed to do so.

Similarly, the courtship of the prettiest girl around, on whom David has had a crush for more than a decade, seems a bit too quick and easy. I would probably be willing to accept the whole thing merely because it addresses the geek fantasy of getting the pretty girl through the use of one’s brains if I weren’t being a critic about it. But seeing that I do have to be one, then I have to call them on the simplistic way that this develops and the quick belief that she displays in David’s assertions that he is a sorcerer, considering that he is supposed to have a reputation for lapses with reality and a lot of time logged with therapists.

All that being said, there are some things that I did like, and some things that I felt could have really been worked on. For example, there is a scene where Balthazar explains to David the relation between physics and magic, and how this helps him be so good at both. I felt that more of these sequences would have helped make it believable and would have also shown how David could become more confident and capable with his magic powers. Another interesting thing that the film plays with are the kinds of artifacts that can capture people. There’s a nice potential conflict when the artifact used to contain Morgana and Veronica is shown, as this could play with a number of dichotomies and could further develop some thematic resonance. But the movie sidesteps such opportunities in favor of the chance to blow stuff up.

That’s the movie’s problem really. I don’t know if it’s a lack of intelligence on the part of the filmmakers, or a conscious decision to limit how intelligent the film is. It teeters and shows that it could be so much smarter if it wanted to be. And yet it never pushes forward, staying at a very pop, very easy viewing level. As a result it is easy viewing, but it is also easily forgettable.

Don’t get me wrong here. This is not to say that this movie isn’t effective. It gets in some laughs, some good action sequences, and a mostly acceptable love angle. It’s just that by the end of it you feel the equivalent of munching on cotton candy; you know you ate something, there’s still some sweetness in your mouth, but the pleasure is gone all too soon and you’re left feeling like you should have had something more substantial.