With a twenty-plus year career and a sporadic eleven feature filmography, Christopher Nolan has already created a legacy that will see him go down as one of the most daring, original, and brilliant filmmakers of this generation, or even any other. He has crafted some of the world's favorite movies, with multiple masterpieces, which unfortunately has the negative effect of making some underappreciated.
Two movies that arguably fall into both categories, being both underrated and being masterpieces, are two movies that got released back to back in 2005 and 2006, Batman Begins and The Prestige. Both being very underrated for different reasons and in different ways.
10 The Prestige - The Cast
One way in which just about every Nolan movie delivers is the phenomenal performers, with the likes of Al Pacino, Leonardo Di Caprio, Marion Cotillard, Robert Pattinson, Robin Williams, Heath Ledger, and many more delivering great performances under the auteur.
This movie sees a slew of brilliant performances, particularly from Christian Bale, as always, as well as Hugh Jackman - particularly when he plays the showman - Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall, and a brilliant effort from the late, great David Bowie as Nikola Tesla. Other performances often get pointed to as the very best of Nolan, but this cast deserves more praise.
9 Batman Begins - Christian Bale & Bruce Wayne
Speaking of Christian Bale, he is one of the most excellent, as well as most committed actors of this generation, with various amazing performances under his belt. However, he often gets unfairly criticized by some people for his Batman performances.
Bale is a fantastic Batman, as well as a terrific Bruce Wayne, and Batman Begins is the movie where he gets to showcase that the most. The duality of Wayne and how he must deal with that and showcase himself is on full display, and while some take shots at Bale's Batman voice or how he gets overshadowed by the villains, this movie shows his ability perfectly.
8 The Prestige - The Many Truths
The Prestige truly is a masterfully crafted movie, and it truly is ingeniously made, and Bale's line about watching closely needs to be taken to heart by the viewers upon revisiting this movie, as doing so reveals many possibilities.
One of the ways in which this movie is so brilliant is in the many different possible truths it presents, are there really clones? Was Tesla stringing Angier along? The movie leaves you with many possibilities about what it all meant, what actually happened, and allows for a major philosophical debate with others and within your own mind.
7 Batman Begins - Gets Overshadowed By The Two Sequels
One thing The Prestige actually has going for it over Batman Begins is the fact it is its own film, a standalone, whereas Batman Begins is in a trilogy, and is overshadowed by the other two movies that come after it.
Even though Batman Begins is arguably much better than The Dark Knight Rises, the two Dark Knight movies are far more remembered, far more rewatched, and talked about far more often. The fact of the matter is, Batman, Begins is a movie that has so much to offer that hardcore fans of it will even put it right up there with The Dark Knight.
6 The Prestige - The Themes & Ideas
There are a handful of ideas, concepts, and themes Nolan loves to explore throughout his films, for example, time, nonlinear storytelling, obsession, and more. This movie deals with some of these far better than any other Nolan movie.
This movie deals with the theme of obsession so brilliantly, showing the deterioration it can cause, showing the sacrifice artists make for their craft. It acts perfectly as a metaphor for so many crafts. As mentioned earlier the movie leaves audiences with so much to think about, and the philosophical debates that arise from it very much become moral ones when you look at the themes present within.
5 Batman Begins - Unfairly Viewed As Just A Set-Up
Batman Begins is like Jaws in that audiences do not get to see Batman until very late in the movie. Then, when the movie is about to end, there is a tease for what is to come next, the Joker. These facts lead many to view Batman Begins as just a setup.
However, the movie deserves more than that. Yes, it is the first in a trilogy, yes it does set up the world and characters for the next film, but it is also a movie that stands on its own, that can get watched without the pressures of knowing what is to come. Many do not appreciate it for what it is, what it accomplishes, but rather appreciate it solely because The Dark Knight came next.
4 The Prestige - Lost In The Shuffle
While Batman Begins undoubtedly gets overshadowed by the two Dark Knight titled movies, it is still often talked about and brought up as part of the collective Dark Knight trilogy, as one piece of the phenomenal puzzle. The Prestige does not have that.
So often the debate between Nolan's best film comes between The Dark Knight, Inception, and a couple of others, with only really hardcore fans immediately having The Prestige pop unto their mind as part of the argument. It does not help that critics were not as hot on it as other Nolan films, with it sitting at 76% on the Tomatometer, and 66 on Metacritic. Regular audiences who see it, love it, but it still gets lost in the eleven film shuffle.
3 Batman Begins - Achievements Underlooked
There is no doubting the influence and impact that The Dark Knight had on the world of blockbuster cinema, and on the future of comic book films, but due to all of its achievements, Batman Begins' are often overlooked.
The movie laid the foundation for the darkness and grit within The Dark Knight, crafting the world and the characters, and establishing the sense of realism to coincide with the retained if not more somber personalities of the comic book heroes. The movie was a smash hit and it is only in the past decade where its accomplishments seem to get brushed under the rug.
2 The Prestige - Made Like A Magician
The movie is, of course, about a pair of the magician, and right from the get-go Nolan gives fans the three steps of a magic trick, there is the pledge, the turn, and the prestige. Nolan crafts the film like a magic trick, and it's pretty spectacular.
The movie begs you to pay attention and hides things in plain sight, but the reveals are still surprising as you are not the magician, you are not yet in on the trick. There are many tricks that have their prestige throughout the film, from the hats to the twin reveal to Angier's trick itself. The film has a unique, magic trick like structure, and is a joy to watch unfold.
1 Batman Begins - Greatest Superhero Origin Story Ever Told On-Screen
Origin stories are something that, for some heroes, fans would rather move away from, as the likes of Batman have such a famous and overdone origin that it has become almost numb for audiences. With Nolan's touch, though, Batman Begins is something quite special.
With the unique time cutting Nolan likes to use, and the presentation of a whole new type of superhero film, the movie acts as an excellent origin story. It is an arthouse movie on a colossal budget, set in the world of Gotham, and it is hard to argue against it being the greatest origin story ever, making its underappreciation all the worse.
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