The Illusionist (3 Viewers)

[Wilbert]

I thought they were meant to be projections? controlled by the asian dudes? no?

Maybe and I know its getting nitpicky but you can't project into air.

 

[roxy]

Don't even get me started on the butterflies!

Oh fuck yeah, the butterflies took the biscuit. It reminded me of that absolutely gut-wrenching Low Low cheese ad with the young wan being served cheese on toast by animated bunny rabbits and bluebirds.


Anyway..

*****SPOILERS*******














I was just a bit disappointed that when we began to see the "ghosts" in Norton's show it was almost as if they were touching on the notion of resurrecting the dead. Which is kinda exciting. I expected to hear stories from the people whose images we were seeing. But we're never told who the so-called ghosts are. Who is the little boy? Who is the older boy whose head we see? Are they alive still? But it's never explored, so you realise Oh ok he's not resurrecting the dead. And that's a massive let down... I realise if they had gone that way it would've really steered thing off on a tangent much too late in the film, but still, maybe they should've offered a better disclaimer to US much earlier on, not just to the audience within the film.

 

[roxy]

Maybe and I know its getting nitpicky but you can't project into air.

That reminds me, how do Gorillaz do their live show? At the Grammys they "performed" using the animated characters in 3-d, and Madonna walked in front of 2-D and behind Murdoc and neither image was affected...how does that work, I've always longed to know....

 

[mr pharmacist!!!!1]

so its settled, the illusionist blows chedder chunks...
reading this thread and thinking about the prestige makes me wanna see it again so much. that film fucking rocked.
david bowie and his louie. genius.

 

[Wilbert]

That reminds me, how do Gorillaz do their live show? At the Grammys they "performed" using the animated characters in 3-d, and Madonna walked in front of 2-D and behind Murdoc and neither image was affected...how does that work, I've always longed to know....

They projected it onto very thin sheets of specially coated plastic. They don't show up on camera. The problem is that the music can't be too loud or the plastic vibrates and then you can see it.

 

[Wilbert]

so its settled, the illusionist blows chedder chunks...
reading this thread and thinking about the prestige makes me wanna see it again so much. that film fucking rocked.
david bowie and his louie. genius.

The Prestige was a fantastic movie. Can't wait to see it again.

 

[Lili Marlene]

I think if filmmakers are going to base their story in a specific location, like Austria, they should hire indigenous actors and film in the relevant language.

Seriously?

That would be a pretty big shake-up for Hollywood

see what I should have said was:

"I'm sorry, but that's total bullshit."

ah well

 

[avernus]

this film is appalling. Edward Norton is not good and his accent is terrible. It's riddled with poor acting and poorly written characters. the scenes with Rufus Sewell and Paul Giamatti were good as these were decent enough characters and excellent actors. Jessica Biel was poor and 2 dimensional and the love story was awful. The child actors were shit too.

It had some nicely shot parts, but it was so slowly paced that everything just dragged.

This definitely suffered for having similar elements to The Prestige, but it was very loose and badly written. I don't think Ed Norton is a bad actor, but he's bad in this. he's probably better when playing ordinary losers.

 

[rape the drummer]

just remembered- near the start when the tree disappeared...very cartoony and silly i thought, didn't really fit.

 

[RSJ]

I couldn't stop laughing at giamatti's accent, really sounded like he was taking the piss. Norton's accent was all over the place aswell and you got the feeling the role was just something he couldn't properly get his teeth into. I mean his character never got fully realised, they affected this sense of mystery that didn't have any decent character traits to back it, aside some hokey speeches before his "illusions" and a few lost years in asia. And i really think it suffered from being released so close to The Prestige. I didn't like the prestige all that much at the time, but looking back, it was a hell of a lot better constructed than this. *POSSIBLE SPOILER IN WHITE* i liked the ghosts and how they were done, that portion of the film was really dark and kind of evil, they should have done more with it, and not showing at the end how he did it was just a cop out *END SPOILERS*

End of the day, it was grand video or tuesday night TV3 movie faff, i just wouldn't go to see it. I watched the whole way through it, but only because i was dead on the couch - herself got up after twenty minutes, made some tea, and sat on the floor doing some art stuff half paying attention, which is what this film deserves really.