The Prestige

Finally, after a monster dry spell, a new big trailer shows up - and it's a good one. Christopher "I can kind of do no wrong" Nolan has put together a dynamite cast that is essentially the cast of Batman Begins plus Scarlett Johansson and Hugh Jackman. The story seems to be a period fantasy about two competing magicians, and the entire movie appears to be shot in pale yellow and brown. I would say this is a pretty good trailer, but I'm willing to bet that if there was more money there, or closer to the movie's release, we'll get something amazing. As it stands now, the beginning is a little weak, but the second half is gold, mostly due to Michael Caine's voice over.

What I like about this trailer is that it works on the same premise as a magic trick, as described by Mr. Caine. The first part - The Pledge - where the magician introduces the trick: That would be the text on the screen during the first bit establishing Hugh and Christian as competing magicians. The second part - The Turn - where things take a turn for the extraordinary: A trailer about a rivalry becomes a trailer about a man who may be a magician without tricks. And the third part - The Prestige - "this is the part that twists and turns. Where lives hang in the balance." That is just hinted at, magic tricks going wrong, things getting surreal and chaotic, and and then before you understand what is going on, it's over, and the show is over. Much like I imagine the magicians in this movie would perform a trick.

This does raise the question - Are magic tricks and trailers really just pure examples of short storytelling, a necessity due to their extremely limited time frame, or is this an especially nicely structured trailer?

I don't much care, I could just listen to Michael Caine say "The Prestige" all day.