The Prestige (2006)

I wrote this review up a few years back, and the movie still holds up the exact same way for me, so here’s that review with slight edits.

When The Prestige first started playing, I was immediately worried that Christopher Nolan was going back to the Memento well, starting a movie with the ending and so forth. My fears were put to rest soon enough, as I grew familiar with the non-linear story structure and immersed myself into the magical world Nolan crafted for this film. Essentially the movie is all about the obsession two magicians have with besting the other in their chosen field. Former partners Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) head off in different directions after breaking away from magician ringleader Cutter (Michael Caine). Angier is a natural showman and while his tricks aren’t of the cutting edge variety, he’s a far better entertainer than Borden is at first. Borden’s got a few tricks up his sleeve though, one of which completely mystifies Angier to the point of stealing it and adapting it for his own show.

That’s all the backstory you get. The rest is shrouded in mystery for now… unless you’ve seen the movie of course. Let’s get it out of the way now, yes, it’s Batman vs. Wolverine. Christian Bale brings his trademark A game to the part of Borden, giving him a shady feel to the point where you wonder just how far he’ll go to triumph over Angier. It makes you wonder exactly what you were witness to in that first big scene, the real ending or a variation on it. Jackman is fairly decent as the relatively upper crust magician, though at no point in the movie are you sure whom you should be rooting for.

As you may have read elsewhere, the twist is somewhat predictable but in a fairly good way. It’s not a cheat by any means, there were hints dropped throughout the movie and it bears mentioning that this movie demands a second viewing.  There are wonderful performances throughout, the story is fantastic, the supporting cast is excellent and David Bowie is tremendous in his small part. The movie looks gorgeous, capturing the perfect moods for every scene.  The one thing I didn’t like was the constant one-up-manship that reached a ridiculous level late in the movie. Yeah, I get that they’re both smart and cunning, but apparently not smart enough to allow the same trick to be played on each other.

4.5 / 5

The Adventures of Tintin (2011)

Firstly, I have to admit that I’m losing the passion for this.  Once I accomplished my #movieaday goal last year, I became less and less interested in watching movies just for the sake of keeping this streak alive.  Now I’m on a terrible work schedule that directly conflicts with me being alive, and I’ve seen the pool of my movies I’ve banked dwindle down to 3 or 4 movies ahead of the day.  I have no idea if this blog is viewed daily by people aside from the links I post on my Twitter, but living up to the title of this blog is becoming less and less of a priority for me.  The other option is just re-posting a whole bunch of my old reviews, but that seems disingenuous to me if I’m not actually watching them again.  Just mentioning all this in case you don’t see daily updates here anymore.  On to the movie.

I’ve been playing a lot of Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception on my PS3 lately, and that is the easiest comparison I can make to Tintin: it feels like I’m watching Uncharted: The Movie.  Not because the motion-capture animation used by Tintin is so close to the near-realistic graphics of U3, not just because of the similar Indiana Jones-esque plot lines and treasure hunting themes.  (I am aware that Tintin has been around for decades before all these things I’m making comparisons to, but I’ve never read one of the comics)  No, it’s mostly because both of the projects feel that they strove so hard for realism that when they have ridiculous set pieces and controller schemes/character movements that it all feels so very manufactured instead of organic.  I hope someone out there knows exactly what I mean by that, I’m tired of talking about it.

Generally speaking, the mocap animation is freakishly well-done, and definitely standing on the uncanny valley line.  Tintin (Jamie Bell) looks weirdly like a very young Simon Pegg, and then Pegg and his chum Nick Frost show up as detectives, making it weirder, and one of the characters that Andy Serkis plays and voices sounds like it’s Gerard Butler voicing him and it was all so off-putting to me.  I don’t even know if kids would love this movie, as I thought it was decent enough, but ultimately unsatisfied by the whole experience (much like my Uncharted 3 feelings), which is fairly odd for me when it comes to Steven Spielberg-directed films.

3 / 5

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

This movieaday blog has provided me with many opportunities to express certain my feelings about movies in (hopefully) no uncertain terms.  When I say that the 2001 remake of Planet of the Apes was one of the worst movies I ever saw and forever turned me off of delving deeper into the decades-long franchise, I hope that you understand how difficult it was for me to actually sit down and watch Rise of the Planet of the Apes.  Tim Burton has ruined so many things for me, and I was hoping that this film would be at the very least watchable, let alone entertaining.

When it was first announced that James Franco was going to star in it, I thought Franco had finally trolled us all, and I stopped paying attention to the existence of the movie until, well now.  Sometimes I enjoy going into a movie not having a clue who is starring in it, that way I can be pleasantly surprised at the familiar faces I’m seeing.  John Lithgow, Tyler Labine and Brian Cox fall into that category, and just a regular surprise was seeing that Tom Felton’s acting career might actually survive the end of the Harry Potter franchise.  Good for him, and kudos also for him actually paying attention to his film father in those Potter movies, Jason Isaacs, and learning how to play a sniveling toad excellently.

I’m not going to lie here, I didn’t know who I was supposed to be rooting for here, the apes or the humans.  Most of the characters are steeped in grey, very few black and white good and evil.  At the end, I was also questioning what the hell the point of the movie was, and a little research has told me that this is intended as a prequel to the original Planet of the Apes and also a set up for a new beginning of the franchise.  If the quality of those future features are at least at the level of Rise, well I could definitely get on board with that.

Special super praise goes out to motion capture actor extraordinaire Andy Serkis, as if the lead ape, Caesar, wasn’t believable or menacing enough, well the movie would have been dead in the water.  Take note Robert Zemeckis: we don’t want to see mo-capped humans, but Serkis acting as anything is completely cool and very rarely unintentionally creepy.

Even if you have no familiarity with the Planet of the Apes movie franchise, I would recommend Rise to you, as it appears to be setting a solid foundation for future box office blockbusters.

3.5 / 5