Justin here. Continuing my Christopher Nolan marathon before the release of Dunkirk, I'm reviewing The Prestige, starring Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, and Scarlett Johansson. The film takes place in late 19th century London where magicians Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) set out to create the best illusion for their magic shows while outsmarting each other in different ways after a previous accident caused them to become rivals. This was my first time watching this film and it was amazing. The story takes a very dark turn throughout as we see the different types of ways both magicians try to one-up each other while also dealing with their personal lives, which definitely fleshed them out more and made me feel immersed. The performances, especially Jackman and Bale, are outstanding in this and there are some interesting twists and turns that are revealed for both of them that had my jaw dropping. I also loved the way it was structured as it reminded me of Nolan's earlier film, Following, that also had a familiar narrative and carried themes such as obsession and betrayal like this one. One of the biggest highlights was David Bowie's small role as Tesla, who was a real life scientist that developed various electricity supplies and machines and he has a story in the film that's very pivotal. It was really sad that Bowie passed away in 2016 because I felt like he really brought a lot of charisma and nuance to this kind of performance and it would've been cool to see him in more stuff after this came out. If I had one minor con, it would be the backstory involving Jackman and Bale. I would've liked seeing more of the backstory with them starting out as friends first and then becoming rivals and that would've made it more impactful. Instead, it felt like things were already starting out fast with them becoming competitive with each other. I also felt like there wasn't much of a resolution with Scarlett Johansson's character, but it didn't bother me too much. That being said, I really loved The Prestige and I'm going to give this a 9/10. What do you think of it? Comment below and I'll see you on my next review.