Which was the “good one,” again?
Ukulele Lady Netflixed *The Illusionist * and I’m tryin’ to remember if that was the Summer 2006 19th-century Feuding Magician Movie That Might Be Pretty Good or if it was the Summer 2006 19th Century 19th-century Feuding Magician Movie That Sounded Fucking Awful.
Of the two I preferred “The Prestige”, but “The Illusionist” wasn’t completely awful. “The Illusionist” isn’t actually a feuding magician movie; there’s only one magician.
The Prestige was phenomenal. I haven’t seen the Illusionist.
I loved The Prestige; I did not like The Illusionist.
I liked them both, though they were quite different. Once actually had a supernatural element, whereas the the other was more a tale of revenge and love.
Neither was perfect, but IMHO, “The Prestige” was by far the more enjoyable film.
I also liked them both - The Prestige for the mystery, and The Illusionist for the a-freakin’-mazing performance by Ed Norton. I think. Or the other way 'round.
Here’s a vote for The Illusionist. Ed Norton’s performance was riveting, and although the love/revenge story might seem trivial on the surface, there’s a deeper theme about how turn-of-the-century social changes exposed the failure of imperial/aristocratic governance. I contend that much of Eisenstein’s magic relied on the Viennese public’s desire to be fooled, as it soon became clear he was not just seeking revenge on the duke, but was subverting the social order.
I found The Prestige to be interesting (Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman know how subtle mannerisms help to clearly define a character), but ultimately the story was unsatisfying mainly because the film labored under its complicated exposition (three separate timelines are maintained, and although this allowed for a few dramatic juxtapositions, I think–to put it glibly–there wasn’t enough bang for the buck). And while the back of the DVD and the first few moments of the film alert the audience to “watch carefully” (for the amazing twist), once it’s over I’ve heard more than a few people ask if they missed something, mainly because one of the twists is telegraphed early in the third act, and the other is fairly easily guessed halfway thru (I think there was a SD thread about this). One could say the same thing about the twist in The Illusionist, but here I felt the film didn’t rely solely on the revealation to be successful; I thought it was more social commentary than a magical love story.
Sorry to sound so cryptic, but I don’t want to give too much away. The Prestige isn’t a bad film, perhaps a little above average, but if its between this and The Illusionist, I’d pick the latter.
I’m with you. I liked The Illusionist far more and remember it much better than The Prestige, also; the latter seemed to drag on and on and suffer from a case of third-act-itis.
Prestige rules! Illusionist drools!
The first time I saw the Prestige, I was like “meh” until the ending, which blew my mind. I then thought it kicked ass when I watched it again.
I was enjoying The Illusionist but I felt very let down by the ending, because part of it was pretty cliche and could be seen coming from a mile away, and the other part–which was basically “the big mystery” of the movie–wasn’t explained at all. Don’t build up this major plot point, upon which the climax of the story depends, and then give us no clue as to how it was done. I felt cheated. (And I’m sure people have ‘fanwanked’ all sorts of explanations, but that doesn’t really count)
The Prestige, as others have said, isn’t perfect but I found it to be more interesting and entertaining, and it has greater rewatch value for me.
The Prestige at least made sense, dramatically.
The Illusionist was a piece of shit and here’s why:
Guy is performing world-class illusions that even today would be considered undoable. So, the whole of the movie we’re just expecting that dude has supernaturnal powers. Turns out, he doesn’t. It just ends in stupid crime drama gotcha twist ending bullshit. Fuck you, movie. No, seriously. FUCK YOU.
I have only seen “The Prestige”.
I liked it. I think I was lucky because I was staying in a hotel, flicked through the channels on the TV and arrived at one of the movie channels. The Prestige was just starting and I watched it through. I had read nothing about it and wasn’t expecting any incredible twist or anything. And to be honest I didn’t get any incredible twist, I saw it all happening a little in advance. But because I wasn’t expecting a twist, I wasn’t dissapointed that it was a bit transparent.
Not true.
Actually, most of the tricks shown in The Illusionist were variations on illusions being done in the day. I refer you to the book “Hiding the Elephant” by Jim Steinmeyer for a history of magic and an explanation of how the tricks were done.
I preferred THe Illusionist for the reasons stated by CJJ*.
I liked them both, but thought both were flawed.
But the OP is also flawed. It’s a category error to equate the two simply because both are about Victorian magicians. After that the movies have few similarities.
For those of us in Japan, “Prestige” came out in theaters recently. My SO and I are going to watch it this week. Thanks for the comments without giving away spoliers. 
One of the magicians is a sled. And Luke’s father.
Banana oil. YOU tot up the number of major-studio movies made in the past 20 years about Victorian magicians. So, if TWO come out within six weeks of each other, how can you NOT equate the two? (At least in terms of “which Victorian magician movie is which?”)
Granted, but you didn’t frame this thread as “Victorian magician movie.” You used “feuding magician movie” (my italics), and there were no feuding magicians in The Illusionist.