The Prestige
By Cory Peynado, Blockbuster.co.uk

“The secret impresses no one. The trick you use it for is everything”

Director Christopher Nolan takes us on another deep and dark journey with his latest thriller, “The Prestige”. Coming straight from the success of Batman Begins the director joins his comrade Christian Bale again to bring us a story that will take us through every twist and turn in the book. I say this because if you blink while watching you undoubtedly will miss something vital.

You know those films that are just so packed with deception that you want a notepad with you as you watch, just to try and pick up the clues and work things out for yourself, well this is like the final exam. There must have been around three separate occasions when I thought I had the secrets of the movie unravelled but I was never quite there. That’s where the brilliance comes in, it’s a very smart film with a lot of depth, a lot of tricks and an amazing knack for making you think you know what the end will be.

Robert Angier ( Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden ( Christian Bale) are two very keen magician's assistants working together with their own ideas of becoming the best there is. But this friendship tragically ends when a knot-tying accident leads to the death of Angier's wife in a very dangerous magic trick.

Robert holds Alfred completely accountable for the incident and dedicates his life to hurting him in the same way, but this starts off a war between them both personally and professionally. Robert is an excellent showman whilst Alfred is fantastic at creating new tricks. They constantly use the skills they have to try and out do each other until one night in front of an unsuspecting audience, Alfred pulls off the greatest magic trick anyone had ever witnessed.

“They'll beg you and they'll flatter you for the secret, but as soon as you give it up... you'll be nothing to them.”

Robert now embarks on a desperate journey to try and find out how this unbelievable magic trick was done and as he proves throughout the film there is nothing he will not do to find out. The rivalry between them has now gone too far for either of them to turn back, it’s just a question of who will come out at the top.

So who do you think would win in a battle between Wolverine and Batman? Well it’s probably not going to happen in the comic books any time soon so this is the closest were going to get. The psychological stand off between them is portrayed so well that it’s difficult to not be impressed every time they are on-screen.

After watching this I learned that almost every part of it was a cunning and masterful magic trick and the first thing I wanted to do was watch it again to join all the pieces of this well crafted puzzle. So much detail has gone into the different characters and their motivations and what less could we expect from the man who brought us films like Memento. Don’t miss it.

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