The Prestige vs. The Illusionist
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?
January 11th, 2007 at 10:41 am
take my advice the fountain was definetly not worth watching. I almost wanted a refund for my ticket…
January 11th, 2007 at 10:46 am
^ Do you like Darren Aronofsky? I think you would DEFINITELY have to like Darren to like The Fountain. I’m a huge fan of his…but his movies are for a very specific type of person I think. He did Requiem for a Dream.
January 11th, 2007 at 11:16 am
Hugh and Christian are my eye candies. Anything with them would be wonderful – can’t wait for it to come out on DVD
January 11th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
Ed is an amazing actress…hmmmmm…;)
January 11th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
Jocelyn – you are great! I’m so far behind on movies (I just saw Borat last weekend), but you would be great as a movie reviewer… you did the perfect over view, and I’m actualy going to get off my ass and watch both of them (just to try and do my own comparison.) Thanks!
January 11th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
love Paul giamatti. I will always thoink of his as “Pig Vomit” from Howards Stern’s Private Parts movie.
FYI- he is in the Vince Caughn movie Fred Clause and plays Santa. Looks funny from what I’ve seen.
January 12th, 2007 at 12:12 am
jocelyn: I loved requiem for a dream. I think what threw me off with the fountain was its story and the way it played out. I liked hugh jackman and rachel weisz, they are great actors.
January 12th, 2007 at 12:28 am
You’re 100% right about these two movies!
January 19th, 2007 at 10:06 am
The Prestige was much much better I thought. IT was a bit predictible, but The Illusionist was just plain obvious I thought. I knew the moment they found the jem in her pocket it was a set up, I mean come on the gem just happened to fall into Jessica Biel’s pocket? As far as The Fountain, you will either love it or hate it. I am OBSESSED with it and it was one of my favorite all time movies. I suggest giving it a try though.
March 7th, 2007 at 7:49 pm
EVERY SINGLE COMMENT YOU MADE ABOUT BOTH MOVIES WAS BANG ON.
I couldn’t agree with you more. I love Ed Norton and I am indifferent to Bale and Jackman but the acting of the latter was far more compelling. To be fair, the ending in The Illusionist definitely caught me by surprise, however, The Prestige overall was a much better movie (for the reasons listed by the author of this page). How Biel even got the part is beyond me, I’ve never seen her act before (no, I didn’t watch 7th Heaven) but I hope she does a much better job in her other films.
March 26th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
Both of these were good movies IMO.
January 9th, 2009 at 11:15 pm
So…I like magic…ever since I was a kid. I watched both movies by this time, and I will agree that the prestige was fantastic, but the illusionist to me was just as fantastic. They are different movies. One is a love story and the other is demonstrating greed and succes. The tricks by the way in the illusionst were based off of factual documentations of the era. Anyway I liked them both.
May 26th, 2009 at 7:43 am
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