The Prestige

[diggler]

i actually enjoyed the illusionist more than the prestige. as predictable as the ending was, it didn't leave the bad taste in my mouth that the prestige did.

fuck the jackman/bale story, i would've rathered the whole movie focus on serkis and bowie.

[grand theft sparrow]

But it wasn't just that the ending was predictable.  There was absolutely nothing to talk about after The Illusionist.  The Prestige's ending didn't sit right with me the first time around but I'll take an ending that doesn't entirely satisfy over one that is much too easy to figure out from the halfway point of the movie and reveals that a major character is only in the movie to conveniently spell everything out to the audience in the last 2 minutes.

[Gold Trumpet]

So what about the discussion on the ending of the Prestige. All you're doing is discussing plot tricks and the make up of the con. It doesn't make the film good. It just distracts from the essentials of good storytelling.

The Illusionist has three quality actors at their most enjoyable in a script that allows the focus to be on them. It doesn't try to do too much but is rewarding as a simple love story.

[polkablues]

The Illusionist has three quality actors at their most enjoyable in a script that allows the focus to be on them. It doesn't try to do too much but is rewarding as a simple love story.

But it's also a film devoid of style, with a plot devoid of surprise, and a female lead devoid of believability.  It was passable, certainly, but it's the sort of movie that you pass by in the video store and can't remember if you've seen it yet or not.  I'd much rather watch a movie like The Prestige that tries too hard and falls short than a movie like The Illusionist, which aims low and nails the target.

[Gold Trumpet]

The Illusionist has three quality actors at their most enjoyable in a script that allows the focus to be on them. It doesn't try to do too much but is rewarding as a simple love story.

But it's also a film devoid of style, with a plot devoid of surprise, and a female lead devoid of believability. 

The parts that do work for me still make it more rewarding than The Prestige.

Besides, I didn't find the Prestige that ambitious or memorable. The style isn't noteworthy. It doesn't tie into the storytelling. It just gives the film a good look. And all the twists become so continuous that the audience is looking for them. Any film that has twists can become predictable if that is all you're looking for. The Prestige made that all you looked for.

Also, the leads of Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale do not even come close to Edward Norton and Paul Giamitti. I've had problems with Bale's so called talent. He's proven himself to go to extremes for a role, but he is a cardboard cut out of his characters. There is little depth and Hugh Jackman has just become a pretty boy everyman for any role.

The Illusionist being good at story and acting means a lot more than the Prestige being good at twist endings and cinematography.

[grand theft sparrow]

So what about the discussion on the ending of the Prestige. All you're doing is discussing plot tricks and the make up of the con. It doesn't make the film good. It just distracts from the essentials of good storytelling.

The Illusionist has three quality actors at their most enjoyable in a script that allows the focus to be on them. It doesn't try to do too much but is rewarding as a simple love story.

In reading over your posts on both movies, GT, I see that we have the same praises and criticisms but about the opposite films. 

The Illusionist does try to do too much.  It tries to be a fairy tale, serious period piece, and murder-mystery all at once and it failed to be any.  It does a good job of pretending that it's as clever and romantic and suspenseful as it should have been but it's not.  Not to say that The Prestige doesn't try to do too much as well but it was just a more interesting story.

It's not even rewarding as a love story.  And if it's intent was to be so, then it succeeded as much as Ocean's 11 did at being a love story.  As I wrote in the Illusionist thread, not enough time was spent on the set-up of the love story.  It wasn't convincing enough in that short amount of time, something that The Princess Bride (for example) manages to do quite well.  It was just sort of implied, almost as if it wasn't important and not the entire driving force of the movie.  And since it wasn't convincing, there was nothing there for me at all except to look for the twists, which were glaringly obvious.  If they had managed to sell the love story, I might actually have enjoyed it.  But the kids didn't do it and I never felt like Norton and Biel were anything besides actors in a movie, so they lost me. 

I rather enjoyed The Prestige and enjoyed the performances, script, and story much more than The Illusionist's.  I've detailed my issues with The Prestige's ending earlier in this thread but it didn't undo the whole film for me because the journey towards that ending was great fun.  But after The Illusionist was over, I felt in a similar way to how I interpret Pete's comment about feeling like he was punished for being smart.

[socketlevel]

i just watched this again and this is kind of tangental but i think my favorite part in the movie is when the promoter says "I'm sorry, i just havent' seen real magic in a long time" or something to that effect. it's one of the many nice touches this film delivers. there is great wonder in a lot of characters in the film, where they hint at something yet beautifully don't over explain. in that one line this small character creates the fascination of what could be an entirely different story/film. what does he mean by that? and what was this true magic he's seen a long time ago.

oh and i agree 100% with polka's stance on the two films stated above.

[blackmirror]

there is great wonder in a lot of characters in the film, where they hint at something yet beautifully don't over explain.

Exact science, Mr. Angier, is not an exact science.

That is my favorite line from The Prestige.  I might as well add that Mr. Bowie's emergence as Mr. Tesla from the spherical field of electricity is one of my favorite moments. 



I love that entrance.

[Pubrick]

Mr. Blackmirror, I find the way you talk very Mr.ious.

[Stefen]

Haha. Mr.ious indeed. 

[blackmirror]