A movie that isn't as smart as it tries to be

Rating: 4/10 (1 November 2006)

First of all, I can't speak to the quality of any of the performances, since I don't really tend to notice these things. So just to be clear: my rating isn't a comment on any of the actors.
Basically, whether or not I enjoyed this movie came down to my reaction to the multiple twists in this movie...and I saw most of them coming a mile away. So did the two people I saw the movie with. It seems like the movie could have been smarter, and the twists could possibly have been concealed better, but edited together in this way, the movie just seemed like a hack version of a better movie.
I found the concept of two feuding magicians interesting, and I came into the movie hopeful, but I was ultimately let down by a movie that was too long and didn't handle a nonlinear storyline very well.