Down with Magic Movies

Rating: 2/10 (20 June 2007)

So last summer we saw two magic movies, The Prestige and The Illusionist. Both of these movies stunk, but The Prestige is the winner IMO for a couple of reasons, but here is why both movies are pretty much garbage: 1) The Illusionist makes absolutely no attempt to explain how Norton's character performs his magic. So we are left to wonder how a man can make spirits or something similar appear. The answer is, he can't. Since the director doesn't want to show us how Norton performs his tricks we are left to figure it out ourselves and since it is not plausible or possible, it makes what Norton does ridiculous.
2) The Prestige attempts to explains it's "magic", but it's magic is actually sci-fi garbage that makes no sense as well. Tesla can create machines that duplicate objects now can he? Both movies are extremely implausible, but at least The Prestige attempts to explain it's tricks, even though they break the rules the film maker sets for us in the first half of the film. Stay away from both movies as they will only leave you scratching your head when the credits roll.