It's like The Prestige... if they made it for the Disney channel...

Rating: 3/10 (22 September 2013)

**Lots of spoilers for this movie only, not for The Prestige**
To engage with any movie, there is always suspension of disbelief. You have to accept that the movie world has different rules than our own. The problem with this movie is that "Magic exists!" doesn't cut it this time, and for a very specific reason:
**The only way this movie makes sense is if the characters subconsciously know they are in a movie, and that the movie world itself revolves around entertaining a viewing audience (you.)**
About 99.9999% of the "clever" moments in this movie are just... impossible, improbable, or just stupidly not clever. So many things... constantly... for example: Dave Franco is running from Mark Ruffalo and dives into a blue curtain. Then he's instantly on the other side of the room. TELEPORTING ISN'T CLEVER. These moments are nonstop and endless.
Woody Harrelson looks up at Mark Ruffalo through the two-way mirror. Jesse Eisenberg throws his handcuffs off of his hands onto Mark Ruffalo's hands. There are a trillion things like this that sure you can explain, but you'll get a headache trying to explain it all. And why try to explain it when the movie just uses CGI for everything? The movie is too lazy to even believe in its own "tricks".
Isla Fisher in a tank of piranhas, encouraging audience members to try to break the tank with giant metal pipes. IRL someone would probably have even tried to jump in- you just don't try to get the audience to stuff like that. Basically the writers never ever tried to rule out anything because it was implausible. If the writers had said "Let's show her severed head get tossed out of the tank, then have it do a wink and disappear" then they would have done it! It's like they think that since they can edit the film any way they want, they can make the characters appear clever or skilled by doing impossible things. There were lots of things that were just obvious lame CGI, like flying bubbles and stuff.
The big things. They break into the warehouse with the safe.............. in order to put up a giant piece of glass...... so they can break through it later to open the safe in 10 seconds. The whole car chase thing was so convoluted as well, with like 30 ways it could have gone wrong and/or killed other people. Knowing the security question answers to a rich guy's bank account letting you steal all his money...
Morgan Freeman's car being full of money which makes him go to jail forever, even though he was obviously framed... Ugh I mean this movie is constantly winking at you, saying "you see what is happening!". Like immediately after the four Horsemen performance he is leaving, then his car pops out fluffy CGI money everywhere, then the cops pull up 0 seconds later. I wouldn't have been surprised if a fake dollar bill immediately floated in front of him with Jesse Eisenberg's laughing face and "SUCK IT" written on it.
In summary. Magicians become stunt car drivers so they can fake a guy's death for no reason. Everything is convoluted and filled with after- the-fact explanations. Oh yeah, the actors are good, I like them. The writers obviously think that having super powers == being clever. If one of the characters had fire powers, there would have been a scene where they say "I bet you 20 dollars I can light this candle using nothing but my bare hands..." then the other person would have said "No way, I'll take that bet. Haha. Looks Like I'm gonna make some easy money" then the fire guy would make fire come out of his hands and light the candle, and the other guy would say "Awww man" while simultaneously handing over his $20. AHHHHHH.