Saturday, August 18, 2007

Now, That's Magic

I finally watched The Prestige. Bought the DVD on sale. And it's really worth it. To sum it up, it is brilliant.

Of course, me being an idiot, I had to spoil my fun at least 10-fold by reading the plot and story before watching the movie first. Yeah, stupid me. For some reason, I'm always partial to spoilers. I couldn't wait for the real thing, so I looked for an alternative. You can find almost anything on the Internet these days.

The turns and twists of the story are amazing. Hats off to the author of the original novel, Christopher Priest, as well as Christopher and Jonathan Nolan who expertly adapted the novel for the big screen. It's astounding how creative and imaginative some people can be. Makes me feel extremely inadequate sometimes.

The casting, directing and acting were superb. It is a star-studded cast, with my favourites Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale playing the lead roles of Robert Angier and Alfred Borden respectively. Yeah, Wolverine and Batman are both in the movie!

Well, actually, they played more than one role each. Jackman is dashing and charismatic as the showman magician. He is also quite effective playing a perpetually imbibed actor hired to be his double in his act. Bale's performance too is unblemished. He is unrecognisable in his other role as Fallon, Borden's loyal illusion engineer. And David Bowie - well, I wouldn't know Tesla is Bowie if I hadn't seen the credits!

It was a thrill watching the 2 leads trying to outdo and sabotage each other (I was so mesmerised I didn't touch my favourite potato chips, not even once, and that says a lot!). But what heavy prices they had to pay!

Now I can't wait to get my hands on the novel. Meantime, I will just watch the movie a few more times. Of course, the extras on the DVD will certainly be a bonus for me.

5 comments:

anfield devotee said...

U sure u liked the movie coz it was genuinely good celluliod or due to the eye candy ie hugh that was on show?
Haiyo aunty, Bowie is recognisable the world over from his horrendously bad teeth!
Movie was ok la, not quite the masterpiece I wuz expecting . . .

weiyin69 said...

aiya, my eye candy don't look that good in this movie lar. still dashing but kind of old. sad ... think i'll go watch the scoop next. he looks much better in that movie. heh heh. how's that for my penchant for eye candies??

i didn't notice anyone's bad teeth either. but david bowie sure looks different. maybe because he's more podgy these days??

rizal will disagree with you. he says the movie is brilliant!

Julian said...

The Prestige was generally entertaining but I didn't quite like the ending.

But it does remind me of Calvin & Hobbes, when Calvin had this thingamajig box which he use to clone himself and send out his clones to sit for exams, do house chores, etc. Now that was hilarious!

If you haven't watched it yet, try The Illusionist also. It stars Edward Norton and Jessica Biel - it's also about magicians, and it also ends with a neat twist.

I did prefer it to The Prestige.

anfield devotee said...

Bowie . . . pudgy? Anyways, just finished the long awaited Darren Aronofsky effort The Fountain. Really loved his previous efforts - pie (as in mathematical) & Requiem for a dream. Won't spoil film fer u. Go watch yer Hugh & tell me what u think of the movie.

weiyin69 said...

Well, am planning to watch both The Fountain and The Illusionist. But I think I'll probably end up with a headache with The Fountain. Some ppl say it's d-e-e-p and you know how shallow I am! At least got eye candy to watch (except the part he goes bald!) Ha ha.