I dunno what I was expecting ... but I certainly thought it would be lighter fare than this...
Maybe a friendly sort of rivalry between two magicians.
No..
This is about 2 people Obsessed with vendettas & destroying each other & killin nearly every living thing they come across..LOL

Val the Impaler liked it more than I did.
It has it fair shre of twist etc. but they didnt really mean much to me.
I guessed some, some I didnt.

I suppose Im one who should learn about persuing paybacks....
So I'll consider this a foul tasting medicine I can learn from & just move on....

Saw this on dvd last nite. Not as good as The Illusionist, the other magician flick.

i didn't like the storytelling sequence in the movie and it was hard to tell some characters apart, especially with the disguises. There were some suprises in the plot, twists along the way, but some of them seemed contrived- and the means didn't justify the ends or the film ending. The fantasy part of the film was silly.

Michael Caine is always good, and he was good here. The female cast were the best: Scarlett Johansson, Piper Perabo and especially Rebecca Hall. Neither Hugh Jackman nor Christian Bale were interesting in this. It'd been a better story if the actresses were the magicians and the competition was friendly though dynamic. Here it was dull, melodramatic and overlong.