One of the movies last night (Spanglish?) had a preview for The Prestige, and I thought it looked good even though I've been making big fun of it for more than a year. I also got The Illusionist since I was pretty sure they were the same movie. Came out at the same time, same time period, two guys and a girl, etc. Anyway, I need to go with my first instinct: The Prestige was a little sucky.
Both Christian Bale and Edward Norton can Machiavelli it up with the best of them, but Christian Bale was a little more like The Colonel (why on earth doesn't Colonel have an R?) than the devil. The acting was better in The Illusionist, but you can't draw out the name and say it all dramatic like The Prestige (or, like The Libertine, a piece of crap (I'm assuming) from a couple of years earlier).
Accents are a funny thing too. Christian Bale's English accent sounded fake, which is weird because he's English, and Hugh Jackman was American, and Michael Caine was Alfred, which reminds me a little of Dick Van Dyke (remember growing up thinking that's what English people sounded like?). And then in The Illusionist everyone had a vaguely German accent, which, when you think about it, is kind of dumb. I mean, they wouldn't be speaking accented English, right? They'd be speaking German, so who cares if the English is accented? But then again, I remember seeing The Man in the Iron Mask and being annoyed by Gerard Depardieu's accent, and then realizing they are, in fact, in France. I think Americans identify British English as Europe. We can understand, yet it's still foreign!
So, to sum up, Illusionist better because Christian Bale has a weird mouth, I just don't get Scarlett Johansson and the name is really dumb. I don't care if that really is what it's called. It did remind me I've looked up Tesla before though (but usually get stuck on the car of the same name. Gorgeous to be sure, but I can't get over a gorgeous car that doesn't make any noise. It's the sound that does if for me), and he was pretty amazing. Though probably nothing like David Bowie. But then, David Bowie seems weirdly ahead of his time too.
And The Illusionist isn't that great, especially the locket-in-the-haystack, way over-tell ending. I almost expected the hills to be alive with the sound of music. But Jessica Biel's butt in those riding pants made all the flaws seem pretty minor.
