So, recently I’ve watched both The Illusionist and The Prestige, two of the most recent movies with magic as their theme. I liked both of them for different reasons.

  The Illusionist was a light and fun ride even though I saw the ending coming from a mile away. I mean, if you know how Pepper’s Ghost works then you know that when you see ghosts on stage or in the audience you’re really seeing a projection of the person from somewhere. Which kind of spoils it for any of the magicians watching. And the ending, while striving to have a Usual Suspects’ type twist, was a bit predictable.

  The acting and the overall story were fun though and I did enjoy it.

  As for The Prestige, well, I just thought this was a much more complex story. The characters were richer with more underlying subtext. When you get to the end you realize that you have been taken in by illusions in the story, just like a good magic trick. One of the taglines is “You want to be fooled,” and I immediately wanted to watch it again and again to see what I missed. When they have the final reveal I got the feeling you get when you find out the secret to a trick that has fooled you for a long time.

  It’s always fun to see magic and magicians portrayed on the big screen but I think The Prestige had a greater impact on me. It really got me thinking. The Illusionist was more of a fun way to spend an hour and a half. I didn’t really think much about it once it was over like I did with The Prestige.

 For anyone who hasn’t seen these yet, here are trailers for both movies:

 The Prestige Trailer
 The Illusionist Trailer

 So, which one of these movies was your favorite? And why? Looking forward to your responses…