Not so much of a magic trick, just a flight of the imagination... maybe.

Rating: 3/10 (9 April 2007)

Okay, well I'd been looking forward to this movie, the premise sounded great, Victorian magician's competing with each other for the 'trick they'll be remembered for'... I've got time for the entire cast, and in my opinion they pretty much all turned in great performances... but i'm still a little unsure of how worthwhile this movie really is.
*spoilers*
so, the movie seems to centre itself around a clever trick 'The Transported Man' - which, although at points is described as nothing more than an illusion created with a magicians double, it's also suggested that Nikola Tesla invented a machine that would not just duplicate objects.. but would perfectly duplicate PEOPLE?!
okay, i'm of two opinions, either:
A) the machine doesn't work = a clever, ingenious movie that i've yet to fully suss.
or B) the machine does work = a naff work of fiction that pivots on an, as yet, impossible piece of technology.
now aside from the mass of arguments going on in the forums, i'm lead to believe that Nolan has created a film with a *working* machine, this is nothing new, many a hopeless whodunit has cropped up an impossible-to-figure killer in the final real. or, like the prestige, has relied on some bit of gadgetry that turns the entire reality of the movie into a farce... Scream3 springs to mind with the 'voice changer' that'll change anyone's voice into anyone else's.
it's about magicians... normal people, creating something mystical, with no more than skill and misdirection... whereas this movie has a normal man, creating a truly mystical effect, with a hugely preposterous work of fiction... if he can invent a 'duplicating' machine back in the Victorian times, then why not just have all the magicians as wizards as well, if you're gonna leap into fantasy, then leap with your whole being, not just plop it in at the end as a silly fix-it.
here's hoping someone makes a movie of 'Carter Beats The Devil' instead, set around the same time, with a far more plausible storyline, and characters you really learn to care about.
then again, if Nolan comes out in 5 years time and explains to us how the movie works with a *non-working* machine, then all is forgiven, and this is a damn good movie..... but until that day... 3/10