"If your hate could be turned into electricity, it would light up the whole world."

Rating: 5/10 (24 July 2017)

That quote is from Nikola Tesla himself, it's not from the dialog spoken by David Bowie as Tesla. But I think it summarizes what is wrong with The Prestige. The action of the movie centers around the nexus where science meets illusion, which is a fascinating avenue into metaphysics, but in this movie, the science is little more than elaborate window dressing to what boils down to a melodrama about the all-consuming hatred between two illusionists the 1890s, Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Borden (Christian Bale).
I'm not a fan of reviews that say what filmmakers should have done. Better to judge artists on the choices that they did make in the writing, casting, production, etc., and how successful those choices were in the finished work. But The Prestige is particularly frustrating because the Nolan brothers are obviously talented men, and I'm convinced that they missed opportunities both large and small.
First, the science: Besides including Nicola Tesla as character, there are two stagecraft engineers, Cutter (Michael Caine) and Fallon (Bale, disguised, in a dual role). Neither, unfortunately, add much to the story, which, again, boils down to a feud which is so vicious that both men end up handicapped.
Second, a rather glaring flaw in the script: Angier is determined to duplicate Borden's most phenomenal trick, teleportation, which can be compared to Scotty beaming people from Point A to a nearby Point B. Angier's engineer, Cutter, deduces that Borden achieves the illusion by simply using a body double at Point B, but Angier stubbornly refuses to believe that, which drives the plot off the rails for two reasons: (1) Less believable than any magic trick, ever, Angier is promptly presented with his own exact lookalike--Gerald Root, an underemployed and drunken actor-- which is preposterous, and disappointing except that it gives us a double-dose of Hugh Jackman. (2) Cutter was right about Borden simply using a double (his twin, Fallon), but Angier has gone to Colorado to find Tesla, whom he employs, and the great Tesla actually invents a kind of teleportation that is more fantastic than Scotty's transporter: it not only transports, it clones. While the subject remains at Point A, a duplicate pops into existence at Point B.
A stunning breakthrough, no? But it's used as just another magic trick.
In the end, more disappointment for the viewer. Angier confesses that his motivation all along-- the driving passion of his life-- is nothing more than to bask in applause, so the whole feud boils down to Angier's rolling-in-it ego vs. Borden/Fallon's consummate duplicity. The women Borden and Fallon love don't even know there are two of them. Ultimately, both wives end up dead, and a shared mistress (Scarlett Johanssen) is so manipulated and betrayed that she scrams.
The actual climax sinks to a horror-film tactic, with clones of Angier rotting in water tanks under the stage. That's followed by a pat Hollywood ending, where the covetous Angier dies, the resentful Fallon is hanged, and Borden walks off with one of the two surviving females, his daughter.
Another quote, one spoken in the film by Bowie as Tesla, suggests how good this movie might have been, if it had been more about ideas than emotions. Speaking as a scientist to a magician, he says, "Perhaps you'll find more luck in your field, where people are happy to be mystified." That is where a potentially fascinating film could have been found, in a story about how illusionists ultimately rely on science and engineering, and when the science is revealed, the result is the end of confusion and the dawn of enlightenment. Getting it completely backwards, The Prestige exploits science in the service of illusion and insane rivalry.
Their subject was magic. I only wish the Mssrs. Nolan weren't quite so guilty of misdirection.