The Prestige
In short: I went and saw it last night and while it wasn't quite what I was expecting, I liked it. I wasn't so sure I liked it while I was watching it, but in the end I'm glad I saw it. One of the largest pitfalls is that you can peg the ending too early on. The technical aspects of how they operated were interesting to me.
Actors: Good performances, all around. Michael Caine is excellent, and the leads are all well done. Hugh Jackman takes a bit to settle into the role and has a lot of screen time, but Christian Bale is into it quickly and effectively. David Bowie is surprising and does very well. The costuming and bit players really help fill out the era.
The Plot: The plot starts out simply enough with Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale as assistants in a magic show in which a disagreement over method causes an accident and brings the two to a bitter rivalry. Things go from bad to worse as the ever escalating rivalry goes beyond mere stage presence and into the realm of "Holy c*** (not the best), did he just do that?".
It's too easy to pick out the ending and plot twists early on, and that leads to some boredom as the movie diverges to America, from London, and takes its time getting back to what matters, but when the leads are interacting and coming after each other things are much more interesting. For me it is one of those movies where it's interesting to see things play out, even when you know in general what's going to happen.
Pros: Excellent design, good acting, a nice look at older magic style.
Cons: Poor pacing. It lets on too soon what's happening in some respects. Very few actual magic tricks are shown from the audience perspective, sometimes building up to a trick, then cutting away completely. And at over two hours long, it sometimes feels bogged down. Maybe it was just my theater, but it was really hard to hear voices over the background music and sound effects.
7/10