Monday, October 23, 2006

The Prestige

I'm gonna do something a little different right now. I started this blog to give me a place to put some art and also as a motivation to DO said art. I don't know why, but knowing that I haven't posted any new art in a couple days is usually enough to make me go out and do something, just so you lucky viewers can see it. Well on top of the fact that I am an artist I am also a geek. I love movies and I love sci/fi fantasy books. More often than not I am not posting new art work because I am indulging in my obsession with those other things mentioned above. Well since I'm going to all the trouble of viewing thos movies and reading those books I may as well impart all of this wisdom that I have upon you guys. So what follows will be my own short little review of the movie "The Prestige" which I saw this weekend. I will not however, be giving away anything in the movie. I hate reading reviews of movies that give away the ending or a plot twist or something like that. Thos are the types of things that we go to movies to see. So here goes.

First off, this movie ROCKS! I saw the trailer for this one a couple months back and I watched three times in a row online. I knew this was going to be something I would really dig and it turns out....I was right. I am also now a big Chris Nolan fan (he's the director) Chris has foavored us with Memento and last years Batman Begins. I think both of those previous movies are brilliant and loved them. Well now he's 3 for 3 (Ihaven't seen insomnia which he also directed). The movie is the story of two rivaling magicians in turn of the century london. Their competition becomes quite fierce and threatens both of their lives. The movie is less about the actual magic than it is about the magicians and how their obsession with the others methods consumes their lives and destroys the lives of those around them. I've read some review that claim that the characters are flat and now very fleshed out, but I disagree. I thought the characters were interesting. One of my favorite aspects of the movie was the fact that I didn't know who to root for. Who should come out on top of this little rivalry? I couldn't really decide. I could see things from both of the main characters perspectives. Like they say "everyone is the hero in their own story." If you've seen the trailer you know that this movie is likely to have twists and turns and that it will try to suprise you in that "I totally didn't see that coming" kind of way and sure enough it does. I'm not saying that those twist and turns suprised me everytime. There were several things that I saw coming before the director openly revealed them. That, however, did not lessen my enjoyment of it all. I found myself replaying the movie in my head later and trying to pick up on hints that Imissed before. A friend and I were discussing the movie this morning and each of us would say "You remember when _____ happened, now I totally know that this is what was really going on." or "Oh, so when ____ said ______ what he really meant was _____." This is certainly a movie that I will enjoy revisiting again to catch all of the little nuances that I missed. Overall I loved this movie and the more I think about it and the more I've talked with others who have seen it, the more I like it. I know I told my Dad that this movie wa ssimply "good", but that was because I didn't want to raise his expectations too high. I'm telling you though, this movie is great. This is the type of movie experience I want more often, but having seen what's coming out this fall it doesn't look like that will happen too much.

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