Four magicians unite under mysterious circumstances, creating a live display claiming to do the unthinkable, robbing a bank on the other side of the world.

Rating: 6/10 (22 August 2013)

Louis Leterrier's thriller bases itself around the concepts of misdirection, showmanship, deceit and ultimately, the power of magic to stun and confound an audience, leaving them wondering at just how the feats that they have witnessed have been pulled off. Jesse Eisenberg's Daniel Atlas invites our fullest attention, claiming "the closer you look, the less you see", in an opening gambit that promises intrigue and suspense, which also acts as a (possibly) unintentional device for viewer reaction, namely, will we be taken in and wowed by what we are about to witness.
Any film of this type is likely to bring about comparisons to Christopher Nolan's excellently dark 2006 thriller "The Prestige", with the on screen presence of Michael Caine only serving to reinforce such correlations. However, where Nolan's effort looks to explore behind the façade and mysterious surface of the tricks presented, "Now You See Me" chooses to shy away from much that could be seen as real explanations, instead allowing a high paced caper to take place, largely centred around the cat and mouse chase between the four conjurers and the law enforcement team led by the slightly unbelievable pairing of Mark Ruffalo's exaggerated sceptical field agent Dylan Rhodes, and Mélanie Laurent's inexperienced desk agent Alma Dray. This immediately takes the film tonally away from the territory of "The Prestige", thus placing it firmly in its own space, but leaves the viewer pondering upon the potential lack of substance that shying away from the deeper explanations may indicate.
However, as the 115 run time of the movie progresses, it becomes clear that to dissect and over analyse every move of the twisting narrative is clearly not the point of this film, and as such, the best way to approach it may be to simply sit back and enjoy the tumult of events as they unfurl before your eyes. The 100mph plot rarely takes a break to allow for reflexion, preferring to let the A-list cast take centre stage, with performances admittedly sometimes bordering on the edge of credibility, Morgan Freeman's disgraced ex-magician Thadeus Bradley being a case in point, in a demonstration which, in the end seeks not to deceive, but instead to entertain.
Undeniably, the film does fall down in certain aspects, such as a shaky script, and the lack of depth which wont allow the audience to "see more" on repeat viewings, but, in a summer dominated by comic book heroes and city-levelling CGI, "Now You See Me" at least offers an entertaining alternative watch which can be largely enjoyable, so long as the obvious thematic comparisons which have been made to more accomplished past films are not kept in mind for too long.