Prestigious

Since this was recommended during my science fiction movie education, I finally got around to checking out The Prestige. The premise? Wolverine and Batman face off in the grudge match fight of the century we've all been waiting for. [Now, there's slash fiction I don't want to know about!]

Well, maybe not those two characters, but certainly it's Hugh Jackman versus Christopher Bale, as two magicians who snipe at each other after one of them leads to the death of the wife of the other. (And, while watching it, it is pretty clear what those circumstances were.) The back and forth goes on, as they try to one-up each other magically, finally leading to the greatest trick of all of going in one door and out the other.

(To be honest, it wasn't that hard to work out what was going on. Certainly, I picked up on it pretty early on, and far before the final "reveal" which told me nothing new.)

The problem I had with this movie was that neither of the two leads were likable, so I wasn't rooting for one of them to win out over the other. The movie gets pretty obvious as to who the hero is supposed to be by the end, but I'm not accepting it. Frankly both men got their hands dirty, so there is definitely no moral ground to be had, and it's only because of one of them having a familial connection that we are meant to take that connection as the win.

In all, the movie takes far too long to get to the big revelation, which the audience is already ahead of, and the ending leaves a bad taste in the mouth anyway. Watch with caution.

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