I mean, it actually did work, right? It cloned things, like hats and people? That doesn't sit well with me. I kept waiting for it to be a dupe ( Doesn't Jackman spot Bale at Tesla's conference thing at one point? Why was he there if not to fuck with his rival? )

Other than that, I really liked this movie.

The twin thing with Bale's character(s) is telegraphed from the very beginning, and should come as a shock to no one. But it fit so tightly in with the themes of the movie that it didn't bother me. Just because you figure out a twist before it happens doesn't make it a bad twist. It was a little obvious, but still felt well written to me.

One thing that got kind of ridiculous was the constant back and forth sabotaging of the magicians. Like, these are pretty clever dudes, shouldn't they be able to recognize their rival is in the audience wearing a fake mustache? It almost felt like a live action Spy vs. Spy movie for a minute there the way shit was heading. But it actually ended up building to something, and I felt like the overall illusion of the movie was pretty damn satisfactory.

Better than The Illusionist imo