Okay, so I’ve seen both movies now.  I watched the Prestige in the theater – and I watched the Illusionist last night on DVD.  And my opinion? (Cause I know how much it matters) Don’t bother with the Illusionist… The Prestige is a MUCH better movie.

The Prestige: Starring Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale & Scarlett Johansson

While I thought this movie was totally predictable, I enjoyed every minute of it.  I love Christian Bale (in my eyes, he just can’t make a bad movie).  The magic in the movie is so fascinating – you are glued to every trick.  When Hugh Jackman first started making movies – I was NOT that impressed (think “Kate & Leopold”).  But he’s made some GREAT choices lately in movie roles.  I can’t wait to see him in “The Fountain”.

I’m not a huge Scarlett fan, but she was very believable in her role, being torn between Hugh & Christian. The ending of the movie was a shock to some, but not to me.  I didn’t really care – because like I said – the movie was so entertaining.  I really loved it.  And Christopher Nolan directed it (Batman Begins, Insomnia, Memento)- and hello, since when does he make bad movies.  Answer: Never!

The Illusionist: Starring Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti and Jessica Biel.

The thing that bugged me about this movie straight away was their accents.  They supposedly had Austrian accents, but it just sounded all muddled to me.  I thought the movie was absolutely STUNNING to look at.  I loved how the whole movie was filmed to look like a photograph from the 1800′s.  The thing that bugged me about The Illusionist was for one, the magic tricks were so far fetched it was comical.  You’ll have to see the movie to get what I’m talking about – but the “magic” was just Hollywood special effects. In a movie about MAGIC, it would be nice to see a trick that looks like MAYBE there was SOME possibility of it actually happening.

The writing was really – really bad. It was chocked full of cliche’d one-liners. As for the actors, Edward Norton did OK as the magician.  I have a hard time knocking Ed, cause I think he’s such an amazing actor.  Poor Paul Giamatti needs a good role, and STAT.  After the MAJOR FLOP and huge disappointment that was “Lady in the Water”, Paul better pick a good indie role (hopfeully along the lines of Sideways) and fast.  Jessica Biel is nice to look at and all, but she’s a horrid actress.

Bottom Line:

I know the Prestige isn’t out yet on DVD (it comes out on February 20th)…so maybe you can watch The Illusionist (if you must) now and will have forgotten all about it when you go watch the MUCH SUPERIOR “Prestige”.

And that’s all I have to say about that.  If you’ve seen both, I’d love your opinion.  What do you think?