Director: Louis Leterrier
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Film Pulse Score: 4.5/10
Despite the impressive cast, Now You See Me, the latest film from director Louis Leterrier (The Transporter, Clash of the Titans), struggles to keep itself afloat amongst a myriad of thinly veiled twists and incomprehensible misdirection. While the first act is fun enough, as the tricks illusions become more grandiose, the story pulls away from the main cast before completely falling apart by the climax.
The film stars Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, and Dave Franco as the four horseman, a ragtag group of street magicians brought together to perform a series of complicated illusions in order to seemingly give back to the common man, Robin Hood style. Unfortunately, the FBI and Interpol frown on people stealing millions, so they send Mark Ruffalo and Mélanie Laurent to take them down. The cast also features Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, and Common.
Structurally, NYSM is set up exactly like one of the Ocean’s films. Each member of the team has a specific magic skill that they excel in, be it sleight of hand, mentalism, or…card throwing. There were plenty of elaborate heists and upbeat music, along with the ever-present bumbling law enforcement shaking their fists as the criminals get away. While all feeding into the heist movie cliché, these elements didn’t prove to be the biggest problems of the film.
The big issues lie within every other aspect of this movie. Though the four main characters are interesting, they are all extremely underdeveloped and we don’t see nearly enough of them on screen. This is one of the biggest disappointments of the movie, especially because there’s a particularly fun introduction to each character before the opening titles. Most of the runtime is spent with Mark Ruffalo’s character being a cranky blowhard trying to catch them, but always being one step behind.
But how is the magic portion of this movie since it’s so heavily focused on magic? If you’ve seen the trailers than you probably have a decent idea that it’s completely ridiculous. Again, in the first act everything seemed somewhat grounded in reality, with a plot that felt intriguing and fun. Unfortunately, after their first big illusion everything started going downhill fast. They took the time to explain how they pulled off the first trick, however after making Isla Fisher float in a metaphorical and literal bubble, all bets were off.
From that moment things become more and more out of control and outlandish to the point where everything turns into a predictable, sloppy mess. Of course, it wouldn’t be magic if there wasn’t a big twist at the end, which felt lazy, sappy, and illogical all at the same time.
It’s all the more frustrating that the cast was solid and the characters were interesting, but nothing was done with with them. It was a waste of good talent, though none of them seemed to be firing at all cylinders anyway. The biggest trick this movie is going to pull this weekend is making viewers think what they’re watching is in any way a good movie.
