The humor was good. It was understated and Dave Stutler, played by She's Out of Your League star Jay Baruchel, delivers self-deprecating jokes and Fantasia-style cleaning mishaps charmingly, in my opinion. Balthazar, played by Nicholas Cage, was also amusing, although I am far from his greatest fan. And the main villain, Horvath's (Alfred Molina), apprentice Drake Stone (Toby Kebbell) was also ridiculously amusing, although he got little screen time. There are jokes, and those jokes at least kept me entertained throughout the movie. But a move can't ride on just humor alone.
My biggest problem with this movie was that nothing was really all that developed. The final battle was lame and week, and the parts of it that were supposed to be suspenseful left me completely underwhelmed. They could have had something much more powerful, but instead everyone was saved because Becky Barnes, played by Teresa Palmer, kicked a satellite. Not very climactic.
There was one part in the movie where Dave Stutler decides he is not the Prime Merlinean, gives his "old man shoes" back to Balthazar, and gives up. I think that, had that subplot been given enough time, it could have made for something much more interesting. I also think they could have let us know a little more about what happened to Dave in the decade Balthazar was locked in the urn. There were little details that teased the audience with a good plot, but they were overlooked for cliched training with fire balls.
All in all, I think this movie would have made a much better book than a movie. And, failing that, at least another half hour for the plot and characters to truly develop.
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