Probable spoilers!
Right, so I don't know how I'd be able to pull this off but, I think I may attempt to never watch a preview to a film again. In fact I think I'm almost convinced previews absolutely ruin movies. Hard to say though. For example when I saw 'Spiderman: No Way Home' I didn't watch a single preview beforehand. Seriously. When I watched that movie I was utterly amazed and 'Spiderman: No Way Home' is an all-time great movie for me.
Funny enough, I had a similar experience with 'The Prestige'. I remember vaguely seeing previews of 'The Prestige' on TV back in the day when I was a kid. The memory is quite hazy. I always assumed the film was about like, lawyers or like the stock market. Hahahahahahahaha.
Not only that, I had no idea Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman were the main characters like, are you kidding me? Then to top it off it off I had no idea it was directed by THE Christopher Nolan???? The levels of shock can't be understated. Truly a stacked situation here. And yeah, they all delivered. So yeah, my so called 'review' will definitely be a bit biased I guess. But it's my genuine opinion at the same time so... meh.
It's not exactly a hot take here but Christopher Nolan is truly amazing to me. I feel lucky to be born in the timeline of Christopher Nolan cranking out all time classics. There's still a few films of his I haven't seen (which I intend on fixing) but I'm almost always greatly entertained by his movies. The Dark Knight Trilogy, Interstellar, Inception and Memento were pretty life changing films for me. Tenet is the only one that didn't really impress me much.
Turns out, 'The Prestige' is far from being about typical topics like lawyers or crime or money.
'The Prestige' is about MAGICIANS.
At this point my jaw dropped about eighteen different times. A Nolan movie, with this cast, and this topic. I can't believe I was unaware of this.
Nolan's instincts and talent is off the charts in many categories but he seems to have mastered the two most important elements to create a great movie. He tells a wonderful story and he mastered the vibes/environment visually in his movies. He is usually awesome at balancing being dramatic and believable/realistic.
He does it again in 'The Prestige'. What set this particular movie apart for me is the peculiar dynamic between Borden and Angier. They're former co-workers and perhaps acquaintances? Turned enemies. That dynamic is not too unheard of in stories but Jackman and Bale of course killed it (in a good way) as actors. In addition though, when they became enemies they seriously hated each other in a really wicked sort of way.
I truly could never tell who was getting the better of who in their battle of screwing each other's lives up. The back and forth action felt like I was watching a sport or something.
It's such an entertaining scenario to think that two men (technically three I guess) who were in the business of faking audiences out, were so determined to do like actual harm on one another. Even more eerie is the fact that being a magician is a pretty unique, rare occupation to have to begin with. So it was truly a pretty lonely war. But then again they also ended up hurting the few people in their lives. Intense man.
I find myself thinking that Borden/Bernard were more or less the 'good guys' compared to Angier but it is not that simple and they're both pretty comparable in terms of nastiness. I mean Angier's wife was killed and then the entire time he was 'battling' two people when he assumed it was one. Two on one is tough. Cutter did try to tell him though! Borden/Bernard really just kept messing with this man. But also, Angier was relentless in seeking revenge too. It was just a mess everywhere you looked.
Frankly, I don't know if any of these 'three' characters were good or bad. Probably lean towards bad I guess. Maybe that's obvious. It's hard to FULLY judge their character really. I think they just drove themselves into madness due to their obsession with their crafts. Also, I think there was a weird level of respect between them. In the weirdest, grimmest way possible.
These men truly just got SUUUUUPER lost in the sauce. That seems to be a main lesson here. Learn to have some chill and maybe take a day off from work. Or a couple days off. Sheesh. Maybe pick up like, a second hobby? Learn to forgive perhaps? Take a deep breath? Pray?
But yeah this film was awesome though. The time period was awesome, the unexpected aspect of true sci-fi-ness was also a sweet addition to this film. It turned a fairly believable movie into a movie that taps into your imagination in a seriously cool way that will leave me thinking about this one for awhile.
Honestly the more I think about it, Tesla being involved so heavily is such a head scratching aspect. Sure it's creative, but it's also a bit odd. Funny even. Conspiracies? Tesla himself is shrouded in rumors as it is. Like in real life.
Anyway what a movie I am soooo glad I saw this. There's so many aspects of this movie that can be analyzed. Sooooo good!
I'd love to have a whole collection of Nolan films one day. I might have to rank his films one day.
