The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Balthazar Blake (Nicolas Cage) is a master sorcerer in modern-day Manhattan trying to defend the city from his arch-nemesis, Maxim Horvath (Alfred Molina). Balthazar can't do it alone, so he recruits Dave Stutler (Jay Baruchel), a seemingly average guy who demonstrates hidden potential, as his reluctant protégé. The sorcerer gives his unwilling accomplice a crash course in the art and science of magic, and these unlikely partners will work together to stop the forces of darkness.

Coraline

Coraline Jones moves into the Pink Palace Apartments in Ashland, Oregon with her loving but work-consumed parents . While exploring the nearby forest, Coraline encounters a stray black cat and a boy who tends it, Wybie Lovat. She also befriends long-retired actresses Miss Spink and Miss Forcible, and an acrobat named Mr. Bobinsky.

While exploring her apartment complex, Coraline finds a small door closed by bricks. Awakened that night by a button-eyed "jumping mouse," she follows it to discover a passage extending beyond the miniature door, which leads her to an alternate version of the house grounds called the "Other World." Upon arrival therein, Coraline meets button-eyed doppelgangers of her mother and father, who claim to be her "Other" parents. These figures guide her to a more luxurious and attractive version of the house and its surroundings. The Other Mother and Father celebrate her presence with delicious food, a beautiful, enchanted garden, and the affection Coraline feels she is missing in her own world.

Coraline continues visiting the Other World, where she is entertained by the "Other" versions of Wybie and the neighbors. The black cat, who can speak when in the Other World, informs Coraline that the Other Mother and her world are a trap set to entice children who believe themselves neglected. Coraline refuses to believe this until the Other Mother offers for her to stay in the Other World if she will sew buttons over her eyes. Coraline demands to return to her real parents, angering the Other Mother into assuming a wretched, gangly form and trapping her in a small room behind a mirror as punishment. There she finds three ghost children who previously fell into the hands of the Other Mother and lost their eyes and souls to her.

With the help of the Other Wybie, Coraline escapes to her own world, only to find her real parents kidnapped by the Other Mother. Aided by the black cat and a seeing stone given to her by Spink and Forcible, Coraline returns to the Other World seeking to free her parents and the ghost children by challenging the Other Mother to a game. One by one, she finds the children's "eyes" (or rather their souls) and destroys the inhabitants of the Other World guarding them. She also finds her parents and tricks the Other Mother into opening the door to her own world, deliberately claiming that they are behind it, to make her escape, closing the door on, and severing, the Other Mother's hand.

Though her parents are safe (with no memory of the incident) and the ghost children have moved on to the afterlife, Coraline's task is not done. Coraline realizes that the Other Mother will try to enter her world to reclaim her, and goes to drop the only key to the door connecting their worlds down a well on the premises. The Other Mother's severed hand enters Coraline's world and attempts to retrieve the key, but it is destroyed by Coraline and Wybie and dropped down the well with the key. Having rid the world of the Other Mother, Coraline has a gardening party with her parents and neighbors.

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans

The battle between pleather-bound vampires and scrunchy-faced werefolk rages on, this time in a medieval setting, in Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. This time, FX guru Patrick Tatopoulos takes the directing reins and, in doing so, crafts what could be the best that the series has to offer. While still far too serious for its own good, this entry manages to thrill without falling back on its second-rate Matrix roots. With no frenetic gunplay and tight close-ups of latex-covered rumps, the picture is freer to focus on its mythology, which was always the best thing that B-flick series had going for it. Boosted by a fantastic performance by Bill Nighy, Lycans has just enough bite to keep one interested as the backstory is fleshed out in this singular take on the clash between the top two creatures of the night.

Filling in the tale first told in the original Underworld flick, the prequel recalls the time when vampires had enslaved the half-man, half-beasts known as the Lycans. The plot picks up where Viktor (Bill Nighy), the leader of this particular bloodsucking tribe, spares the life of the first Lycan he encounters, Lucien (Michael Sheen). As the years go on, the vampires take advantage of this new race by breeding them as their slaves and protectors. As fate would have it, Viktor’s daughter, Sonja (Rhona Mitra), falls in love with Lucien, which inevitably leads to the revolt of the Lycans, with Viktor on one side and the forbidden union of his kin and Lucien on the other.

As with many prequels, the trick is keeping an audience’s interest despite them already knowing how it will end. In this case, Rise of the Lycans is fairly successful. The change to a medieval setting certainly helps things, as do the meaty acting chops of its warring leads, Sheen and Nighy. Mitra once again does a formidable job, as does the impossibly deep-voiced Kevin Grevioux, as the future co-leader of his monster tribe. Though the story does fall more into archetypal forbidden love territory, it’s the cast — as well as the razzle-dazzle FX — that really keeps one’s interest. The inclusion of straight-up werewolves is a big plus, even if the difference between them and Lycans isn’t nearly as clear as it should be.

On the downside, the picture is really missing that vampiric bite that it should have. While previous entries were hampered by their bloodsuckers manning handguns, this picture similarly falls back on swords and armor to get its toothy villains through the fight. Thankfully, one should know what to expect out of this series by now, which is partly what works best for this third feature. By switching things up just enough, Tatopoulos keeps the acting true while delivering on the massive action one would expect from hoards of lycanthropes storming castles filled with debutant vamps. While it may not be “Citizen Canine,” Rise of the Lycans tells its tale competently and without the derivative nature of its predecessors. While the genre world will still pine for a rock ‘em-sock ‘em brawl between the pillars of the monster world after seeing this, they could certainly do a whole lot worse than what’s on display here

The Watchmen

A complex, multi-layered mystery adventure, "Watchmen" is set in an alternate 1985 America in which costumed superheroes are part of the fabric of everyday society, and the "Doomsday Clock" - which charts the USA's tension with the Soviet Union - is permanently set at five minutes to midnight. When one of his former colleagues is murdered, the washed-up but no less determined masked vigilante Rorschach sets out to uncover a plot to kill and discredit all past and present superheroes. As he reconnects with his former crime-fighting legion - a ragtag group of retired superheroes, only one of whom has true powers - Rorschach glimpses a wide-ranging and disturbing conspiracy with links to their shared past and catastrophic consequences for the future. Their mission is to watch over humanity...but who is watching the watchmen?