The Prestige vs The Illusionist — Page 2

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#26

re: The Prestige vs The Illusionist

Posted: 2/24/07 at 9:47pm

Priest - I have every intention of seeing The Prestige - are you kidding, Mr. Jackman AND Mr. Bale?!? It's a miracle I didn't go over and storm the Disney Studio lot when they were filming! Just waiting for the DVD.

#27

re: The Prestige vs The Illusionist

Posted: 2/24/07 at 9:48pm

Well, lucky for you, the DVD came out this past Tuesday!

"One no longer loves one's insight enough once one communicates it."

The opposite of creation isn't war, it's stagnation.

#28

re: The Prestige vs The Illusionist

Posted: 2/24/07 at 9:50pm

And if I wasn't just sitting home sick, I'd be watching it right now

#29

re: The Prestige vs The Illusionist

Posted: 2/24/07 at 9:52pm

My only complaint with the movie is that there wasn't enough nudity.

HUSSY POWER! ------ HUSSY POWER!

#30

re: The Prestige vs The Illusionist

Posted: 2/24/07 at 10:41pm

I haven't seen the Illusionist, but I loved the Prestige! But I have to say, the Prestige novel sucked.

<--- the set of A Midsummer Night's Dream that I was assistant stage manager for during the 2007 season at the STNJ outdoor stage.

-Dre- You must remember all the same that at the crux of every game is knowing when it's time to leave the table... And it's important to be artful in your exit. No turning back, you must accept the con is done... It was a ball, it was a blast. And it's a shame it couldn't last. But every chapter has to end, you must agree.
~Dirty Rotten Scoundrels~
There's a special kind of people known as show people. We live in a world full of dreams. Sometimes we're not too certain what's false and what's real. But we're seldom in doubt about what we feel.
~Curtains~
It is a far, far better thing I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest I go to, than I have ever known.
~A Tale of Two Cities ~

#31

re: The Prestige vs The Illusionist

Posted: 2/24/07 at 10:46pm

Halfway through The Prestige right now, actually. But I'll have the chance to see them both because last week we bought The Illusionist thinking that it was THe Prestige, so now I've got them both. It's interesting that the opinions of which is better are so different from each other. Can't wait to see which I prefer.

"I can't figure out what kind of life this is, comedy or tragedy, I just know it's showbiz. And what if I don't agree with the lines I have to read? They don't pay me enough, the way I see it."

#32

re: The Prestige vs The Illusionist

Posted: 2/25/07 at 1:51am

Biel, Giamatti, and Sewell did a damn good job in Illusionist. However, I think (overall) The Prestige was better.

#33

re: The Prestige vs The Illusionist

Posted: 2/25/07 at 8:20am

THE ILLUSIONIST was drum-tight, thrilling, with brilliant performances by all. THE PRESTIGE was all over the place, too long and not enough substance. Watching Norton and Giamatti face off was much more intoxicating than Bale and Jackman. So, THE ILLUSIONIST wins for me.

"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body

#34

re: The Prestige vs The Illusionist

Posted: 2/25/07 at 8:41am

I preferred The Illusionist, though I enjoyed both of them.

I admit that the Edward Norton factor likely had a lot to do with it. Had Norton played Jackman's character in The Prestige I might be whistling a different tune.

#35

re: The Prestige vs The Illusionist

Posted: 2/25/07 at 10:08am

Haven't seen the Illusionist. I enjoyed the Prestige quite a lot. I went with many of my friends, and I seemed to be the only one that understood the ending, even the cleverest of them was baffled. Can't see why. Good film, Bale is a great actor and it was another steady performance by him.

The rain we knew is a thing of the past -
deep-delving, dark, deliberate you would say
browsing on spire and bogland; but today
our sky-blue slates are steaming in the sun,
our yachts tinkling and dancing in the bay
like racehorses. We contemplate at last
shining windows, a future forbidden to no one.

Derek Mahon

"Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets."

Arthur Miller

#36

re: The Prestige vs The Illusionist

Posted: 2/25/07 at 10:34am

I enjoyed "The Illusionist" more, I lost interest in "The Prestige" as soon as I realized it was going to use a science fiction deus ex machina, rather than solve its own riddles with the magic the lead characters were said to be masters of.

#37

re: The Prestige vs The Illusionist

Posted: 2/25/07 at 11:13am

has anyone read The Prestige novel yet? What did you thinkof it?

#38

re: The Prestige vs The Illusionist

Posted: 2/25/07 at 1:17pm

I'd actually really love to read the novel, but I highly doubt I'll ever get around to it.

"One no longer loves one's insight enough once one communicates it."

The opposite of creation isn't war, it's stagnation.

#39

re: The Prestige vs The Illusionist

Posted: 2/25/07 at 2:01pm

I enjoyed both. I feel "Illusionist" was more of a "chick film" - it had a Gothic Romance feel to it, while "Prestige" was more of a thriller.

#40

re: The Prestige vs The Illusionist

Posted: 2/25/07 at 2:11pm

Didn't see Illusionist, but saw The Prestige and I just loved it. I've become a fan of Chris Nolan's work and this is by far one of my favorite films of his. It was my favorite film of 2006.

What's funny about the film is that if you watch it carefully, you'll notice that the movie is in fact, a magic trick.

I showed my mom a photo of David Bowie and Hugh from the movie and she looked confused. I told her that guy was David Bowie, and she was like "OMG, that's David Bowie. I hardly reconized him."

Updated On: 2/25/07 at 02:11 PM

#41

re: The Prestige vs The Illusionist

Posted: 2/25/07 at 2:13pm

"What's funny about the film is that if you watch it carefully, you'll notice that the movie is in fact, a magic trick."

Can you explain that a little more? I get what you are saying, I'd just like to hear your take on it.

"One no longer loves one's insight enough once one communicates it."

The opposite of creation isn't war, it's stagnation.

#42

re: The Prestige vs The Illusionist

Posted: 2/25/07 at 2:26pm

Well, basically I heard it from Hugh Jackman in an interview, and the three steps to a magic trick are used throughout the film which would explain why the tagline for the movie is Are You Watching Closely?

I haven't watched the film since I saw it in the movies, but I wanna say the first part of the movie is The Pledge where the magician says what he's going to do, and then comes The Turn where the magician makes that something do something extraordinary, and then The Prestige where the object comes back or where the twists and turns are.

I'll be able to answer it better sometime next week.

#43

re: The Prestige vs The Illusionist

Posted: 2/25/07 at 2:32pm

I can't stop thinking about the film.

It really is brilliant, the more I think about it.

******** MAJOR SPOILERS**********

I love how basically Jackman's big trick is really just the bird trick amplified to a greater scale. Replacing himself with another one of himself, albeit supernaturally. He really "got his hand dirty."

One of the most brilliant things Nolan did was the simplicity in Bale's character's secret. It's so, so simple. He's a twin, that's how he did it. It's so simple that it is almost annoying. But it really reiterates one of the main points of the film: the extrordinary seems excruciatingly ordinary once you know the secrets behind it.

The film is fabulous examination of obession and sacrifice. The more i think about it, the more I love it.

*****END SPOLIERS****

"One no longer loves one's insight enough once one communicates it."

The opposite of creation isn't war, it's stagnation.

#44

re: The Prestige vs The Illusionist

Posted: 2/25/07 at 2:35pm

"I thought THE PRESTIGE was well made and beautifully acted (especially by Bale), but the ending completely ruined it for me."

*****SPOILER??****

See, the ending brings the whole movie together. It is where the power comes from.
The film really is a magic trick. You want so badly to be fooled but also to know the secret, but once you know the secret it seems so simple that you are bound to be disappointed. It's really kinda profound in a way.

"One no longer loves one's insight enough once one communicates it."

The opposite of creation isn't war, it's stagnation.

#45

re: The Prestige vs The Illusionist

Posted: 2/25/07 at 2:43pm

The ending of the book was quite twisted in its own way, but required the presence of a present-day storyline the Nolans were smart to eliminate. The "tricks" the two magicians used remained the same, though.

The Prestige felt very clever to me, but the way it ended up siding with one of the magicians over the other kind of made it lose any emotional profundity it may have had in my mind. A better point would have been to show not just how both Borden and Angier lived ruined half-lives in the name of their craft and their vengeance, but how it wasn't worth it. As it turned out, it was kind of worth it for one of them, and that ruined it a little.

#46

re: The Prestige vs The Illusionist

Posted: 2/25/07 at 2:44pm

I didn't feel Jackman's obsession. I know I was supposed to. But, really, he spent a lot of time sitting around a posh hotel waiting for Tesla to create the magic. I would have rather seen something where Jackman's character himself pushed the bounds of science, or even shown him making some real personal sacrificies to fund Tesla -- anything to really dramatize the steps he was willing to take to make that trick work. In the end, it just seemed like he was some rich guy who paid another rich guy to invent something for him. I didn't believe his obsession and that hurt my interest in the pay-off of the movie and, for me, took the sting out of Bale's revelation about the actual simplicity of the trick.

#47

re: The Prestige vs The Illusionist

Posted: 2/25/07 at 2:45pm

*****SPOLIER AGAIN, SORRY****

Well, Plum, you have to take into account that one of the Borden's ended up dead, as did Angier. So was it worth it to any of them?

"One no longer loves one's insight enough once one communicates it."

The opposite of creation isn't war, it's stagnation.

#48

re: The Prestige vs The Illusionist

Posted: 2/25/07 at 2:58pm

JohnPopa, that's where the book actually succeeded more than the movie- Angier paid a serious price there when his trick went wrong.

Priest, the huggy ending with the adorable moppet was what left a sour taste in my mouth.

#49

re: The Prestige vs The Illusionist

Posted: 2/25/07 at 3:56pm

I saw the Illusionist, and started watching The Prestige, but I got bored. If I'm not at all in the least bit intrested in a movie after twenty minutes of it, I turn it off. That being said I don't know if my opinion counts now, but The Illusionist takes it for me.

#50

re: The Prestige vs The Illusionist

Posted: 2/26/07 at 4:01pm

I've seen both films (and read the novel The Prestige), and I liked both, but prefer The Prestige over The Illusionist. I've read the novel The Prestige, and found it both confusing and brilliant - it kept me wondering what was really "true", since the novel is told from the perspectives of Angier and Borden. The book had me fliping back and forth to try and match up the events that both men are recounting, trying to figure out what was going on.

The Illusionist seemed to be very similar to Romeo and Juliet, but with magic thrown in and a happier ending for the lovers.

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