The bridge scene was what made me think this movie treated the audience as morons: there was the bus and it had a car in front of it, but apparently nothing could be seen from the helicopter.

It beats going on a hunger strike and doing other silly things and calling it magic like Blaine did.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2008-05-09/news/0805090200_1_magician-breath-hunger-strike

Yeah, I watched it on TV and couldn't believe how absurdly over-the-top it went.
They might as well have said at the end, "Hurr durr! Magic IS real and we are wizards!" because so much of that stuff was physically IMPOSSIBLE.
Illusion is about making something LOOK real, not masking everything with CGI and visual effects to the point where only real magic would make sense!

No there was no "magic".
There was this as summarised by another poster.
the premise of this movie is that there is a secret organization of magicians that have the resources of a nation. and the technological power of a nation even more so. the designs for the technology is that of a powerful techno organization
And there were 4 stage magicians who were apparently also highly skilled stunt drivers, acrobats, martial artists, bank robbers etc. led by a career FBI agent, who somehow had the time, inclination and resources (aided by the unseen Eye of course )to dream up this pile of codswallop.

Not a very good Christian, it seems.

Excuse meI happen to be Christian, and I loved the movie. I'll thank you not to discriminate, jerk.

there is a lot of illuminati in this movie, i hate masonists but i can tolerate their good movies. i hope i didn't make any sense at all this time.

What does that even mean?

it was fun, entertainment, uptight people with things in their butts, specially christians are not suppose to watch it.

Exactly; I got the sense that Rhodes was extremely intelligent and capable of producing holographic technology way ahead of his time (as hinted at in the blueprints seen towards the beginning of the film). Not to mention the ability necessary to launch a massive, multi-account wire transfer as seen in the bank account trick. That was all Rhodes IMO; the magicians outright deny it when confronted by Tresler onstage.

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur C. Clarke

If the elephant was inserted in post-production, then yes.
I can assure you my intentions are strictly horrible

Good job not understanding that if a magic trick is not ridiculous than it is not going to be very entertaining.
When Houdini made an elephant disappear was that too ridiculous to be entertaining? Would you have asked for your money back if you were at that show?

He was making a point of how ridiculous the 'tricks' were. Good job not understanding that.
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So they were actually magical right?
Um. no. Good job not understanding the film.

Only stupid people believe in supernatural beings.

Nope, this is how dumb the movie is. Everything they did was practical so that allegedly is how they earned to join a society that apparently may actually be magic.
WTF is the point then? If you can do all this stuff that appears to be magic without actually being magical, why then create a secret society that uses magic?
Oh and the guy who got all his revenge is magical(maybe? really vague) but instead uses non-magical people to do his bidding for him.stupid.

I completely agree with everything you said including your rating. Plus that twist at the end was forced, ridiculous, and dumb. They tried to make the movie complex when they failed miserably. Maybe I just have to watch it again. I don't know.
"Most Trees Are Blue" - Jaden Smith

That's the whole point of "Magic," dumbass.
no the whole point of magic is to steal peoples money or get chicks in bed.
pretty sure on that one.

Go away, or I shall taunt you a second time!

Movies & a magic show actually share the same dilemma in terms of the audiences' suspension of disbelief. A magic trick can't be presented in such a way that the audeince feels like the illusion is not actually being performed in front of their very eyes.

The director said that they had some actual stage magicians advising them, and they didn't feature any trick the real magicians said couldn't be done. So there's that.
-There is no such word as "alot."

it's just that. A movie. A fantasy movie at that.
Exactly, which is why I don't get why people are so upset about it.

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I agree with your sentiment, but my biggest annoyance was the Bad CGI on the self-aware twirly handkerchief thing in their first trick. Too many of their tricks relied on bad CGI IMHO.
The bubble didn't bother my quite as much since I know that it is possible to pass objects like strings into bubbles - less believable with such a large bubble and with such violent movements as she was making, but at least it was based on sound ideas a breakaway connector could be used for the wirework to drop her. Making her weightless to drop into the guy's arms, a bit ridiculous.
You could imagine that the people for the bank trick were pre-selected since they were shown as being pre-selected for the trick - although I have a very hard time believing that these people would have been able to do that much homework that they could get bank account information and knowledge of the value of what they lost.
The mentalist stuff was a bit annoying too. I've done a bit of that stuff myself and while there were some scenes where it was shown adequately, a lot of it just got sloppy.
Actually, I found the whole thing felt to me like nobody really cared about the movie and they were all just phoning it in. Even Morgan Freeman and Caine seemed awkward and uncomfortable with their roles. I normally really enjoy watching Ruffalo, but I just didn't get him.
One of the worst movies I've seen this year. Painful at times.

'You don't just "cut the string" then have the actress fall from the air hoping a scrawny magician catches her in just the right way to prevent both of them from breaking their backs.'
The way gravity works with mass multiplied by speed, the scrawny magician would had broken his arms and back.
It's that man again!!