The Prestige (Blu-ray + DVD-Video)
Picture: A-/B- Sound: B+/C+ Extras: B Film: B/B-
The Prestige is more than smoke and mirrors
for Christopher Nolan. The director of Batman Begins does it again (though not
anywhere near as perfect as Batman
Begins) with his innovative, twisted tale of two battling magicians in a
world that is more than it seems. The Prestige starts with two magical
wannabes Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale)
working for a renowned magician (Milton the Magician). Looming in the shadows a very wise and
distinguished stage engineer John Cutter (Michael Caine), who attempts to teach
the boys something about honor and magic.
While doing a magic act with a Chinese Water Torture Cell, Robert Angier’s
wife Julia (another stage performer for Milton) drowns, leaving Angier
distraught and broken while insisting that Borden tied the incorrect knot for
the trick, consequently killing Julia.
After the
tragic incident the two future magicians go their separate ways to pursue their
future endeavors. Hell bent that Borden
tied the wrong knot; Angier attends a small magical performance Borden is
holding. At this performance Borden
attempts to do a bullet catch illusion, but Angier intervenes in a crude manner
demanding to know the truth of his wife’s death, Borden does not answer and
Angier blows off two of his fingers.
From this moment on the film twists and turns, the audience never
knowing who or what to believe. The film
goes from a simple rivalry to lies, deceit, double crosses, magic, science, and
more than one could ever believe. The
film is very interesting, but don’t blink or you may miss something important.
This film
is often compared to The Illusionist
(reviewed elsewhere on this site by our Blu-ray critic who liked both films
very much, but feels it is summarized well here just the same) which came to
theaters just around the same time; but make no mistake, besides magic the
films are different in every other way. The Illusionist is a tricky story more
centering on lost love and defeating your past, where as the themes of The Prestige center on rivalry,
obsession, and sacrifice. The Prestige is a much more twisted and
deep tale than the Illusionist,
offering a truly perplexing storyline.
The Blu-ray
version is once again another exceptional HD disc featuring the stunning
cinematography of Wally Pfister, A.S.C., following the HD-DVD of Batman Begins (reviewed elsewhere on t
his site) and decent basic Blu-ray of Memento. The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition
image is of exceptional depth, detail, richness, fullness and is another
demo-quality disc everyone has to see to believe it. For the DVD-Video, the technical features of
this film are adequate. The picture is
presented in 2.35 X 1 Anamorphic Widescreen that is clear and has very good
light/dark balance for a film that often works in the shadows.
The sound
quality is also good but there is some trouble with the Dolby Digital 5.1
surrounds in that it is hard to hear the actors’ words at times over the chaos
of the background in both versions, occasionally this is intentional but it
happens too often to be desirable. Fortunately,
the PCM 5.1 24-bit/48kHz mix exclusive to the Blu-ray, it is one of the best
PCM mixes on the market and worthy of the amazing work on Batman Begins, but since this takes place in the past, it is going
to be quieter in scenes. Dialogue is
really good here and composer David Julyan is not getting enough credit for his
terrific score. Audiophiles who agree
will want the Blu-ray just for that.
The
extras on both versions of this release are impressive offering fans of the
film 5 different featurettes from ‘The
Director’s Notebook’ giving insight into Chris Nolan’s vision. This reviewer would not recommend watching
all of the ‘Director’s Notebook’ at
once because it becomes overbearing and tedious to watch so much of the same
film context, but taken in doses the extras are quite excellent. There is also The Art Of The Prestige, which is great if you are enjoying the
extras defying potential fatigue. After
all, you can watch them in bits and pieces.
In the
end, for a film that was loosely based on a 1995 novel by the author
Christopher Priest, it turned out quite well.
The film took some apparent liberties with the novel, such as removing
any trace of plot dealing with the spirit, but with the great acting cast and
faithfulness to an classic era (though the book was present day) the other
divergences are easily forgiven.
- Michael P Dougherty II and Nicholas Sheffo
