I really liked The Prestige. Perhaps not working it all out (I had maybe 50% of it figured, and hadn't tied even that together right) helped. Yes, the magicians were cruel and horribly callous--working out exactly how horrible Borden was (since I hadn't worked out all of his doubling) when Angier had been portrayed as more mindless and offhandedly cruel up until the reveal was a big part of my enjoyment.

I didn't like any of the characters that much, but I liked looking at what they were doing.

Never mustered that much interest in The Illusionist.

(And FTR, Franz-Ferdinand's life - and death - would make a much more interesting movie than either of the above.)

ITA. Actually, I'm surprised there haven't been more films set during WWI, considering the impact it had historically and the amazing backdrop it would give to even a basic love story/buddy film/generic drama.

I guess I'm a little more able to forgive The Illusionist because of Uhl's obvious delight at being suckered. Still, Eisenheim is not a sympathetic character - a prince dies and Uhl is disgraced because Eisenheim wants to be with his lady love.

I felt the opposite -- The Illusionist seemed to be pretending to be the nicer movie, and the hypocrisy annoyed me. The Prestige didn't seem to have any illusions (pardon) about the amorality of its leads.

Yes, but as you said, nothing's going to beat the mental plotline of Ziggy Stardust helps Wolverine beat Batman using the AWESOME POWER OF ELECTRICITY.

Well, true. I still want to see that movie, by the way.

Weird sidebar, but oddly enough we also rented Renoir's The Rules of the Game this week and Bob Bob had a hard time with it because he thought the characters were reprehensible. Neither of us had that reaction to The Prestige, though we could have. I think if the repeated sabotages had any point it was to show how they were habituating to becoming evil characters. Tesla, OTOH, didn't have much justification, and he bothered me for that reason.

Ziggy Stardust helps Wolverine beat Batman using the AWESOME POWER OF ELECTRICITY.

Don't forget, Ziggy's assistant was played by Gollum. While Batman's assistant was, um, well, Batman's assistant, unless you're willing to say he was also Carter from Get Carter.

More spoilers:

I disliked that The Prestige had to use Real Actual Magic to get out of the corner it painted itself into. I didn't like The Illusionist because the central trick seemed callous and obvious, but the Prestige was more callous, more obvious, and the only thing surprising about the reveal was that they had to violate all natural laws to get there AND they'd already shown you that they were willing to do so. Blah.

While Batman's assistant was, um, well, Batman's assistant, unless you're willing to say he was also Carter from Get Carter.

Alfie or Alfred, Michael can just can't keep way from that name.

It's better than that-- Wolverine's assistant was Batman's butler. Batman's assistant was Batman.

Weird sidebar, but oddly enough we also rented Renoir's The Rules of the Game this week and Bob Bob had a hard time with it because he thought the characters were reprehensible.

Really? That's one of my all-time favorite movies, and I think the exact opposite of the characters. They do act reprehensibly sometimes, but they are fundamentally forgiveable and human.

I liked them too. And I think Bob's work on evil makes him oversensitive to everyday evil. But I see where he's coming from-- casual infedelity (accompanied with social acceptance of hiding it from the wife), the hunting scene, the murder, chasing someone around a party with a gun that no one seems to mind, and the General, who at one point laughingly recounts a story where someone dies of a gunshot wound and later dismisses the murder of Jarieu-- all of those things made him hate these people. Not only that, I am sure Renoir wants us to judge those characters for their casualness about the consequences of their lifestyle, even though they are portrayed charmingly.