raybear | When I see your face, mellow as the month of May.

I woke up this morning to a grayed out window and strange plinking noises -- hail striking the glass, I realized after fully becoming cognizant. It's snowy and slushy and has been all morning. I called and cancelled my dentist appointment, choosing instead to stay inside and do my reading for the weekend workshop. But first I ate breakfast of leftover chinese takeout and watched The Illusionist. I had watched The Prestige a couple weeks ago. My friend Steve has a theory that whichever movie people see first, they like better, and so far, he seems to be right. DYA saw Illusionist first and preferred it, I saw Prestige first and preferred it. It makes sense, because seeing one means you can guess the ending of the other one sooner, not because they are really the same, but you're just in the mindset (kinda like watching lots of episodes of CSI). There are other reasons too, though.

The Prestige was a bit messy and overlong and left storylines incomplete. The Illusionist was tightly told and consistent. But in the latter, I found it sort of...boring. Or at least less compelling. Maybe because I just wasn't terribly sold on Jessica Biel and the romance, which is the main point of the movie. It's a love story, set in the context of a magician's life, with a dash of politics but they really seemed peripheral. The Prestige is a dark movie about obsession, revenge, and the intense sacrifices that are required to manipulate a trick. The Illusionist was sweet and hopeful with butterflies delivering handkerchiefs; The Prestige was twisted and somewhat horrifying with a basement full of dead bodies in water tanks. It stayed with me a really long time. I was sort of letdown by the Prestige in having a supernatural ending, except it almost worked, the whole Tesla bit. And, at the very least, they explained everything. I craved that explanation, even though I was sort of traumatized by what needed to happen to make the illusions work (smashing birds, cutting off fingers, living half of a life everyday for the sake of a career, killing off the biological replica of yourself every night and what that does to your psyche). With the Illusionist, they never fcking explained it! The movie ended, and they explained how they pulled off the fake murder, but they never explained how he had the 'ghosts' walking around the theater. Yes, yes, I assumed it was something to do with projections and mirrors, but come on, I need more than that to explain how it was done. I like puzzles best when there's an answer. So really, The Illusionist relied on supernatural/magic (and CGI) too.

I'd be curious to know if others saw both movies, and in which order, and which they liked better.

Now I'm thinking about why sometimes I like stories/art that are perhaps less 'original' but are extremely well executed, but othertimes I prefer things that are new and mind-twisting to me, even if they are messier and less complete.