We've come a long way from the unbelievable, magician-insulting crap that was the Prestige.
Where the Prestige got just about everything about magic and magicians wrong, this gets it right., There are one or two minor flights of fancy (I don't think the bubble levitation is workable, but I could be wrong.) but by and large it is very true to both the art and the ethic of the magician,
Magicians since the time of Houdini at least have been very aware that our dark cousin is the con man, and we hate them and seek to expose them wherever we can. In this day and age, the con men wear suits and run corporations and banks, and in spirit there is no netter group of people to challenge them then magicians.
In addition to getting the small stuff right, this movie gets it right in the large. Just when I was shaking my head and saying "this can't be done, the safeties aren't there and it depends too much on people doing the right things at the right time", the movie pulls out the ONLY solution that solves all those problems.
Like all great magic tricks, there is only one good solution, but the magician distracts from it to the point that we don't even realize its there.
Sadly, I think this movie suffered from the problem many really good movies about magic do... they are so faithful to the hidden art that no one but practitioners believe its real. Ironically, the more absurd a movie about magicians is, generally the easier it is for the audience to swallow. The more accurate, the less the common man believes it.
Which is probably why The Prestige did so well and this so poorly.
Where the Prestige got just about everything about magic and magicians wrong, this gets it right., There are one or two minor flights of fancy (I don't think the bubble levitation is workable, but I could be wrong.) but by and large it is very true to both the art and the ethic of the magician,
Magicians since the time of Houdini at least have been very aware that our dark cousin is the con man, and we hate them and seek to expose them wherever we can. In this day and age, the con men wear suits and run corporations and banks, and in spirit there is no netter group of people to challenge them then magicians.
In addition to getting the small stuff right, this movie gets it right in the large. Just when I was shaking my head and saying "this can't be done, the safeties aren't there and it depends too much on people doing the right things at the right time", the movie pulls out the ONLY solution that solves all those problems.
Like all great magic tricks, there is only one good solution, but the magician distracts from it to the point that we don't even realize its there.
Sadly, I think this movie suffered from the problem many really good movies about magic do... they are so faithful to the hidden art that no one but practitioners believe its real. Ironically, the more absurd a movie about magicians is, generally the easier it is for the audience to swallow. The more accurate, the less the common man believes it.
Which is probably why The Prestige did so well and this so poorly.