Very nice images and good story

Rating: 7/10 (13 September 2007)

It was ashame that in Europe The Prestige and The Illusionist were released almost simultaneously. It seems like there's always some sort of espionage going om in the movie industry because there are always at least two similar films released in a year. To separate the two movies the marketing engine of the Illusionist made it look like yet another hopeless love story in the likes of the Titanic.
However I was wrong, when I bought the DVD I started it and I was sucked in to the story line. The character Eisenheim played by Edward Norton is so mysterious and yet so charismatic that you just have to believe every word he says. And this is what makes the story so compelling the story is actually more of a quest to what's true and what's false or a lie. And during the 1 hour 40 minutes you're being played with as a viewer and the plot twist at the end was rather unexpected; where I'd found in The Prestige what the plot must've been here I was clueless.
The images are very nice and crisp and rather colourful and yet you feel like you're being drawn into the early 20th century. I loved the music and the sound they really contributed to the mystery and the images.
Is it better than The Prestige? I'd have to say no, because the characters in The Prestige are so much more complex, you've indeed two Eisenheims in that movie and it's a complete different genre to The Illusionist. The Illusionist is a just a brilliantly crafted thriller and when that's the way you look at it on a rainy evening huddled on the couch you will definitely enjoys this movie.