"Batman Begins" meets "Memento"?

Rating: 6/10 (1 November 2006)

I had very little knowledge of what this movie was about, and was starting to think about the other "magician" movie that was released earlier this summer with Edward Norton as I watched the opening credits. It was somewhat slow as it began (but then again, was this going to begin with a car chase/bank robbery?), but it was interesting when they began to reveal some of their secrets by the second reel.
After a lot of holes that had been dug up and some not quite filled, I began to tune out of this film more and more- thinking about what I was going to eat that night for dinner, the laundry, etc.- but I kept focus, particularly at the film's climax. Basically, there was a twist layered upon twist layered upon twist, and I felt slightly annoyed that this has now become a standard in storytelling (along with excessive uses of flashbacks). Nolan's usage of twists and flashbacks were channeled eloquently in 2000's "Memento," but now it has become somewhat sloppy.
The reason why I didn't buy these twists were the mere fact that both of the story's main principals, Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale, didn't seem intelligent enough to anticipate and second guess each other. I mean, they were both clever at times, but if Jackman could not see that Scarlet Johanssen was playing him all along- how could he predict EVERY move that Bale made like he did? It just did not seem plausible enough to convince me that either one of these characters were that brilliant. And maybe I missed it, but whatever happened to Jackman's double? Scarlet Johanssen is another issue. Not only has the woman been in every fourth movie, but she plays the fourth character as well for about the same amount of screen time per movie. She slips into this film, but slips out just as fast. I wish she would take more complicated roles because I thought she was somewhat interesting in 2001's "Ghost World." Perhaps she assumes the easy-on-the-eyes part whenever a casting director is in a snag on whom to cast for a female star in a film.
"The Prestige" has its moments and is fair. Sir Michael Caine has been better in other films, but never bad. I was surprised to see that David Bowie did not try to ham up the screen and instead appeared as a possible Pierce Brosnan as an old man instead.
Perhaps this was Christopher Nolan's mainstream follow-up attempt to "Memento," but seemed more like "Insomnia" meeting "Batman Begins."