some terrifying dark art

[rm]

So far, the reviews on The Prestige are largely not good. The book is very complicated and hinges on an obsessive attention to detail about things most people don't care about, so it's unsurprising the movie would be hemmed in by the same. That said, most of the criticism seems to be not about this, but the fact that the characters are so driven and because of this, so seemingly heartless. Yes, that's right folks, one of the movies I've been most eager about this year is being panned because it's too Slytherin.

That said, The Village Voice has a review that's pretty good and written in a rather lovely way:

http://www.villagevoice.com/film/0642,foundas,74759,20.html

Its final paragraph sums up, largely, how I feel about most everything:

Directing his first period feature, Nolan has picked the ideal setting for a filmmaker of such rationalist inclinations—that seismic moment at which the Victorian era began to cave under the weight of the nascent Machine Age. Thus The Prestige, filmed with a minimum of digital chicanery, is at once a lament for the loss of the manual and analog and an awestruck marveling at the possibilities of electricity and mechanization. In one moment of ethereal beauty, Tesla makes a field of oversize lightbulbs burst into brilliant illumination without apparent benefit of wires or generators. And so one is reminded how, for all the wonderment of a Houdini or a David Copperfield, the true magic of the universe lies in the onward march of science and industry, and in those many things we now take for granted—like movies themselves—that once seemed the workings of some terrifying dark art.

Comments

[alterjess.livejournal.com]

Interesting -- I thought the intensity of the rivalry was the best part of a disappointing movie. (I might feel differently if I'd read the book and been spoiled in advance, but figuring out one of the two "twists" from the opening shot made all the coy references to "you're looking for the secret, but you won't find it!" incredibly irritating.)

[rm.livejournal.com]

Honestly, it's arguable how much reading the book is a spoiler because most people I know who read the book feel it's either extremely ambiguous (intentionally so) or takes several reads to figure out.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I have significant hopes for this movie, but after seeing The Illusionist (the other 19th century stage magician movie), I would be shocked if The Prestige is anywhere near as good simply because The Illusionist was so exceptionally excellent that films that equal it are quite rare. That said, I'll be seeing it in the very near future.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen The Illusionist yet, but having read The Prestige and knowing the plot of The Illusionist they are extremely unrelated films, despite the fact both of them cover stage magic around relatively the same period of time.