Disappointing

Rating: 2/10 (2 October 2014)

For movie that is in top 250, has such high rating and so much positive reviews it is really disappointing. It is really far from good movie and irritated me so much that I felt like writing my first ever review.
First, start with good, or more precisely not so bad. Well, premise is good, and if this was done better maybe I would be interested in how they did tricks. And Tesla was very well done. Bowie was excellent choice for Tesla. Other than that I can't remember even single redeeming quality of this movie.
Now, bad parts. Oh boy, where to begin.
No likable characters. There isn't a single character in here that I can connect to or even like! And who is there to like? Angier who only wants to steal "magic" trick from Borden with no consideration for those around him? Borden(s) who has such bad attitude towards his wife and daughter? Mother who hangs herself out of jealousy and leaves her daughter alone? Olivia, who is so forgettable that she just dropped out from movie for no apparent reason and no one noticed? Nope, nope and nope... Rest of characters are so bland or appear so little that are not even worth of mentioning.
Central plot should be rivalry between two illusionists. But their actions are so unrealistic and bland I had feeling like only thing pushing plot forward was will of the writer. And that is really bad storytelling.
In a movie which presents itself like realistic we get such outrages deus-ex for main plot line it made me cringe. A machine that copies anything! A machine in 19th century which copies anything and can teleport! What? Really? Before this was introduced I still had some hope to rate this movie as watchable, but this just buried my hopes. Oh, and why there is no Sci-Fi category mark for this movie is beyond me.
Scenes are jumping all over the place. One dude is reading diary of another dude, who at some point is reading diary of first dude, and all of that we get after opening scene that showed us main character die... Did I mentioned confusing time-line?
Plot twists. Well, to be frank there is just one and that is revelation that Borden has a twin brother and that is how he does his Transportation trick. So greatest mystery, only thing in this movie worth anything, is revealed to be the simplest possible solution. Still, it wasn't that bad and there are hints to this. Problem is lack of other plot twists in what should be mystery driven movie.
And why in the world Borden doesn't reveal his wife that he has a twin... Both twins slept with women they don't like and lied to family because of some stupid illusion trick? And cut fingers? And allow wife to hang herself because of this and leave his daughter motherless? Someone actually wants me to believe that? So when exactly they decided to act like one person? And how no one even noticed, his (their) wife never met ANY relative of Bordens who knew they were twins when they were little?
So bad characters, bad plot, bad pacing, no point to the story, bad Sci-Fi elements... How can anyone, let alone so much people, give this movie good review is beyond me.