“Are you watching closely?”

From the creators who revived the Batman franchise from its grave, The Prestige is a dark, enigmatic tale of biting bigotry between two rivaling magicians in turn-of-the-century London. A simple game of tug-of-war turns serious as the obsessive competitiveness between Robert Angier ( Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale), who were both under the same illusion-engineer Cutter (Michael Caine), expands into rivalry, and alas, warfare through deceit and lies.

Both men mess each other up by destroying their “Big Finales” as they fulfill their submission to the compulsive jealous desire of who is the better man.

Just like Batman Begins, the movie has a constant theme that repeats itself in the darkest parts of the script. The characters are troubled and the question of revenge is often reinstated into the events. As the movie continues, you sink deeper as the plot of the two men sinks deeper and deeper into their insanity.

I found myself questioning if the tricks they performed on stage was how magicians of that time really did it.

Despite the amazing settings, plot and characters, one thing threw me off: the answer to Angier’s impossible trick. It solved the “prestige,” but was too science fictional considering everything else in the movie already dealt with pretending.

Jackman, Bale and Caine deliver an overall impressive performance as do much of the other actors including Scarlett Johansson, a cameo by none other than David Bowie and by the once ring obsessed Gollum/lust possessed Kong, Andy Serkis.

Directing brothers Chris and Jonathan Nolan produce yet another satisfying story. Using the three steps to perform an illusion onstage: the film intrigues, confuses and baffles the audience with its “big screen-magic.” The results are satisfying, the character development is optimum, and everything is as real as it does not seem to be.