Completely, utterly overrated

Rating: 4/10 (24 February 2007)

I enjoyed the Prestige, much to my surprise. So when nearly everyone I spoke to told me that The Illusionist was much better, I was eager to see it. What an amazing waste of time.
The first and most notable problem was the directing. There was nothing appealing about any of the shots, rather they seemed very green like a director on his first major film run. It ranked down there with your standard slasher movie in terms of care taken to ensure engaging, unique perspectives. I also found the "flashback" techniques (ooh, Grain effect!) to be extremely primitive, again, like a student film that is trying to be so much more than it is.
The story also greatly lacked substance. To me, a good film is something you get something out of--be it a message, a new perspective, or even if you just have a great time watching. This film could have been so much more. While I anticipated something of depth, of unique quality, I received the standard-issued "poor boy loves high society girl who's engaged to an evil yet powerful boor". There was nothing special about it. In addition, the movie wasn't clear on what it wanted its audience to believe. Were we supposed to know that Sophie faked her death, or was it supposed to be a giant surprise? Both of those scenarios were not played out well enough.
And then, yes, and then, of course, there is the tremendous lack of explanation of the illusions. To me, that was the entire allure of the movie: "How IS he doing it?". We don't get any explanation. How on earth in the late 19th century did this ordinary Illusionist manage to create such vivid imagery? To hold a sword in place by its tip? It's completely implausible, and trying to make up excuses for something that should have been explained quite clearly only returns us to the fact that this was not a good movie.
One other irritating thing about the film was the muddled accents. British? Italian? German? Hungarian? I could never tell. Edward Norton was particularly bad at whatever accent he was trying to pull off, it seemed like a wretched combination of the above four. Even Rufus had tremendous difficulty slipping between accents. It was very uncomfortable and distracting.
I could go on and on about every aspect that irked me about this film, but I'll keep it brief: If you want to see a magician movie this year, skip over the Illusionist and pick up a copy of the Prestige instead. It's by no means a perfect movie, but it is far more enjoyable and offers explanation while leaving just the right amount of mystery.