20 Baffling IMDb Top 250 Placements You Won't Believe
2. The Prestige
The Film:
A twisted rivalry story between 2 competing magicians, which was directed by Christopher Nolan before he made it big.
Placement: #48
Why It's Wrong:
Everyone always automatically lavishes praise on anything by Christopher Nolan. The praise is usually a little over-the-top, but it's nearly always given to worthwhile films. Not so here.
The Prestige is Christopher Nolan's worst film. It has a great performance from Hugh Jackman and Nolan's visual flair is always admirable, but as a piece of writing it lacks sorely. It takes a bizarre narrative turn in the final act, it's confusing and its messages about being destroyed in the search for greatness are so corny and predictable now.
Worst of all, it's a very ugly film. Everyone in it is a total a**ehole and there isn't anyone to root for. Critics weren't even that fussed about it (for good reason too) so why has the internet blown up an average film to such ridiculous proportions? It's also strange people didn't see the big twist about how Christian Bale's character pulls off his magic trick, since surely it shouldn't have been hard to work out.
It being on the list at all is bad enough, but it being ranked in the top 50 of all time is just preposterous.
Where It Should Be: Not on the list, that's for certain.