Below par movie from "Memento" creator

Rating: 3/10 (13 November 2006)

I came to see this movie with very high hopes, but came away severely disappointed. In an age where it seems every movie has to have a 'surprise ending' this is no different from many other movies out there at the moment.
I guess the bulk of my criticism comes from the fact that I guessed the plot of the film, together with its two theorethically surprise twists at the end about 20 minutes (Tesla exhibition + multiple top-hats in the first scenes of the movie) and 40-45 minutes into the movies (Borden gravediggin'). From then on it was just waiting and saying to myself 'That was so obvious'. At fault is the director and scriptwriter who seemed to throw to much apparent clues too soon in the movie.
Chris Bale does I must say a spectacular job as Borden, with Hugh Jackman supplying a satisfying if indifferent performance. The biggest flop was the babe meaning Scarlett Johannson, who seems to think the only thing necessary to act is to show some skin and to pucker up her seductive lips.
I especially find flaw with the whole premise of the story... if you do a magic film you take one of three routes to make it coherent and with some cohesive background.
A) You include real magic making the story more mystical; B) You put into the movie unexplainable events and leave it to the audience to decide if the magic is real or false; C) You show that everything is a trick, although the tricks are so ingenious that they add a certain punch to the movie.
YOU DON'T DO SOMETHING WHICH IS A BIT OF THIS OR A BIT OF THAT making it in a muddled incoherent mess. Unfortunately all solutions to the movie were basically the easiest solutions, meaning that the scriptwriters (novelist?) really didn't try to hard to think of more surprising alternatives to the story.
The end solutions were apparent from a mile away, the Scarlett role was dismal and all in all the story very much unimpressive. Giving these factors even though I absolutely love "Memento" and congratulate Nolan on "Batman Begins" I have to give my thumbs down and a 3/10 (with one point added for Christian Bale's portrayal).