I really liked The Prestige, and I liked but didn't love Memento.

The Prestige has incredibly strong performances by the whole cast, an endlessly entertaining and captivating plot, and the non-linear story-telling that Nolan so espouses plays perfectly into the hands of the plotting leads, slowly unraveling and tying the knot of complication between the two characters simultaneously. It's really good! I didn't like the ending too much, because it just felt too surreal, I suppose? I mean the mechanism for The Real Transported Man. It's fine, I suppose (I'm not upset or anything), but it felt like a bit of a cop-out; that's my only real complain about the movie. Nothing ever felt pulled out of a hat and all the threads were there by the end, having all been planted well enough ahead of time to feel satisfying.

Memento, on the other hand, was annoying. Mind you, it's still a good film backed by strong performances from the cast, the plot is still interesting and, I think, well-paced; but the format is too jarring. It was boring to watch the same thing over and over again! Also, the way the characters switch as the story progresses felt a little undeserved, in the sense that it felt somewhat incidental. Things happened to happen as they did, guided by the instincts of the main character and the trust or desperation of the supporting characters. It wasn't satisfying to understand everything by the end, it more felt like tracing the line on one of those cereal box puzzles.

Again, I did think both were good, but The Prestige stands head and shoulders above Memento, in my opinion.

I wore shorts!