Better than Christopher Nolan's The Prestige.

Rating: 8/10 (31 August 2007)

It's hard not to compare this movie with The Prestige since it shares a lot of similarities.
Both movies managed to keep the audiences guessing to the end, which in it self is a bit of an achievement, but with very different result.
Where The Prestige settled with the conclusion being tragic and sci-fi, The Illusionist managed keep it fictional and ended with happy ending.
I think it's a lot harder to have a convincing happy ending with fictional believable story than having tragic sci-fi these days.
In terms of cinematography and visual treat The Prestige has the edgy because it had more budget and the director had the ability to utilize it but as a whole I think The Illusionist worked better as a film.