You only listed half dozen pairs of similar movies. There’s so many more.
I found the film, which started out intriguing, was in the end off-putting due to the lengths the characters went to for their craft. After the constant bitterness and acrimony in the film, I found myself feeling bitter and stressed when leaving the cinema. After a tense movie I like a happy ending of some sort to relieve the tension. While Children of Men did not happily resolve for everyone, it was at least ambiguous enough to be interpreted as a happy ending. It also had humorous moments during the film to break up the tension.
Another thing Children of Men had that this film lacked was good and evil characters. When everyone is crazy, there’s no one to root for. I like someone to be slightly less evil than the rest. The only one I did like in the end was Tesla.
SPOILERS BELOW
I think it was the mutilation of the second twins fingers that did that I disliked the most. I wouldn’t do it for my brother, even if we did look alike. It was mentioned that living a lie helped pull off a magic trick, but it still seemed bizarre that Borden and his twin would act as one person for their entire life (including finger chopping) for the benefit of one trick.
Angier was more believeable, because he started normal and slowly went crazy. By the time he was drowning clones and framing people for murder, I’d seen over the course of the movie exactly how committed he was to his cause so had time to distance myself from him but could still empathise with him a bit.
Tom 11 December 2006, 05:11 AM
2
I will have to follow with more SPOILERS!
I like the more cautious Borden twin. I can only assume he was the one that didn’t tie the dodgy knot but went to the funeral out of guilt. And that he was the one that counselled not to go backstage at the final show. And the one that got his daughter back at the end. So you see, happy ending. Of sorts.
Borden from the start of the film is smug in the knowledge that he has an awesome trick up his sleeve, and is very respectful of the man who’s been pretending to hobble his whole professional life in order to carry the fishbowl. He’s way more focussed on the tricks than Jackman’s character, and both of them would agree that they’d have to mirror injuries or abort their whole plan. And if you’ve put that much work into it…
And it is a pretty awesome trick, as is made clear in the film. Everyone loves it. From an obsessive magician’s point of view it’s probably worthwhile.
The girls were nice. Michael Caine was nice. The daughter was nice.
Tom 11 December 2006, 05:24 AM
3
Not all of the pairs listed on wikipedia can be easily summarised in one or two words. Also, I didn’t want to go on for the whole review. Should’ve mentioned Sky High and Zoom though.
Comment on this Review
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andy
11 December 2006, 03:13 AM
You only listed half dozen pairs of similar movies. There’s so many more.
I found the film, which started out intriguing, was in the end off-putting due to the lengths the characters went to for their craft. After the constant bitterness and acrimony in the film, I found myself feeling bitter and stressed when leaving the cinema. After a tense movie I like a happy ending of some sort to relieve the tension. While Children of Men did not happily resolve for everyone, it was at least ambiguous enough to be interpreted as a happy ending. It also had humorous moments during the film to break up the tension.
Another thing Children of Men had that this film lacked was good and evil characters. When everyone is crazy, there’s no one to root for. I like someone to be slightly less evil than the rest. The only one I did like in the end was Tesla.
SPOILERS BELOW
I think it was the mutilation of the second twins fingers that did that I disliked the most. I wouldn’t do it for my brother, even if we did look alike. It was mentioned that living a lie helped pull off a magic trick, but it still seemed bizarre that Borden and his twin would act as one person for their entire life (including finger chopping) for the benefit of one trick.
Angier was more believeable, because he started normal and slowly went crazy. By the time he was drowning clones and framing people for murder, I’d seen over the course of the movie exactly how committed he was to his cause so had time to distance myself from him but could still empathise with him a bit.
Tom
11 December 2006, 05:11 AM
I will have to follow with more SPOILERS!
I like the more cautious Borden twin. I can only assume he was the one that didn’t tie the dodgy knot but went to the funeral out of guilt. And that he was the one that counselled not to go backstage at the final show. And the one that got his daughter back at the end. So you see, happy ending. Of sorts.
Borden from the start of the film is smug in the knowledge that he has an awesome trick up his sleeve, and is very respectful of the man who’s been pretending to hobble his whole professional life in order to carry the fishbowl. He’s way more focussed on the tricks than Jackman’s character, and both of them would agree that they’d have to mirror injuries or abort their whole plan. And if you’ve put that much work into it…
And it is a pretty awesome trick, as is made clear in the film. Everyone loves it. From an obsessive magician’s point of view it’s probably worthwhile.
The girls were nice. Michael Caine was nice. The daughter was nice.
Tom
11 December 2006, 05:24 AM
Not all of the pairs listed on wikipedia can be easily summarised in one or two words. Also, I didn’t want to go on for the whole review. Should’ve mentioned Sky High and Zoom though.
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