I quite enjoyed both films but can't really decide which one I like more.

Havn't seen The Prestige, but I own the illusionist DVD and it kicks! I should rent The Prestige though and once I see it I'll be able to vote.

The Prestige: User Rating: 8.4/10 (60,076 votes)
The Illusionist: User Rating: 7.7/10 (32,807 votes)

Definitely should be seeing The Prestige

I liked the Illusionist, but I loved the Prestige. Easy choice.

QFT

well they're kind've similar but different as well.

I like the magician battle in The Prestige and the explanation of the 3 acts was cool (re: the pledge, the turn, the prestige). The insight of how dedication to the art can transcend the illusion is interesting.

The Illusionist had a much stronger love story behind it but definitely moved a little slower. Lower budget may have been the reason less people saw this film but it's arguable that the ending was a bigger bang than in The Prestige (which was excellent itself).

I love how both films were tricks themselves. We watched the magic from the magician and fed off the audience's reaction and then we became the audience for the film itself.

Absolutely despised The Illusionist and thought the Pretige was pretty good.

I found The Illusionist to be too slow and to contrived. I have gotten into too many discussions on it to go into any great detail. I just hated that movie and it is in my top ten worst movies ever. I like my movies to have some pace to them and not put me to sleep 5 times while watching it.

too contrived? that's kind've a crucial part of magic. maybe you're not a fan of magic.

I do agree that the Illusionist was a slow pace, I'm ok with it as I thought the acting and sets made up for it.

The story, not the magic. Though I will say the magic is far better and more entertaining in the Prestige than it is in the Illusionist. The Illusionist it was the same trick over and over again. To me the ending, when Paul Giamatti figures it out, it is weak. I don't want to spoil it so I won't go into detail but his motives for what he dies at the end don't add up and it seems to me the writer just gave up and ended it. Seemed like he was trying to be M. Night and failed horribly.

In regards to the pacing being slow but the acting good. I gotta disagree there as well. I love Ed Norton. I thought he was made to look like a piece of wood in this movie. I blame it on writing and directing.

But let me preface this all off with it being just my opinion. I hate reading movie reviews for the simple reason that watching and rating movies is subjective. My wife clings to whatever the EW reviewers give movies before she sees them and it annoys me because I have to watch a movie and decide for myself whether it is good or not. I can see people like and disliking any movie ever made. So I am not trolling or anything.

The Illusionist sucked. If you didn't know what was going to happen half way through the movie, then I'm sorry, but you're retarded.

The Prestige was pretty good. The book was so much better (no surprise).

Don't get me wrong, I love Edward Norton, but he absolutely suck-diddely-ucked in this movie. If I could have gotten past that (which I couldn't) this movie still probably would have sucked.

The Prestige was just fantastic. Great acting, great story, and great twists.

INEC.

Prestige. AINEC.

Although I love Scarlett, I'm in a Jessica phase right now, so Illusionist.

Oh, and Paul Giamatti is hot too.

i just saw the prestige for the second time and everything makes sense now. it is a pretty complex movie but its rock solid, no plot holes at all. of course you have to assume that in the world of this movie that a machine that can double people can exist, but thats how it goes with movies, and fictional stories in general. yea, awesome movie. crushes the illusionist.

between this and memento, thats 2 mind blowing movies Christopher Nolan has made. hes the man.

Wait, what? That's not what happened. He was using his double from earlier in the movie... correct?

not correct.

Well neither is this:



Which seems to be what brv is basing his comments on. Unless I'm missing something, which is very possible.

I don't know what I'm talking about anymore. Don't you think Tesla would have kept a machine that cloned things?

yeah. i think the sacrifice for real magic was literally that he had to kill himself. over and over again.

if i remember the cloning was an unexpected side effect. remember the hats in the woods? i dont think he was trying to clone anything. i think he was trying to transport something from one place to another. that was supposed to be the trick. but you cant cheat magic. it required sacrifice. like cutting off the other twins fingers so they could still do their headline trick. or the old chinese man always walking hunched over and slow so he could do the fish bowl trick.

it's been awhile since i watched this movie. but it's def one of my favorites. hopefully i can rewatch soon and get back to thread.

Yes. This was one of my favorite parts of the movie.

I guess I'm just pissed off that Tesla gave him the machine. I mean, they even mentioned that Tesla was hurting for money. NO HE WASN'T... HE COULD JUST CLONE GOLD ALL DAY LONG!

WTF I can't believe this thread had a 3-year bump. Oddly enuf, I just recently watched the Prestige...I clearly vote for Prestige now. I was just such a big Ed Norton fan that I wanted to love the Illusionist but it's been dud country for that guy in recent years. Hopefully, Rounders 2 gets him rolling again.

I really wanted to like The Prestige more than I did, but I agree the ending was a copout. All along, they keep coming back to the fact there's no such thing as 'real' magic, then all of a sudden we have a machine that clones things?

I would have enjoyed it much more if we somehow found out tesla planted the hats in the woods in order to fool the magician. I was profoundly disappointed.

FYP

I agree. I just saw the Prestige for the first time last month. Loved the entire movie until the end.