A great illusion

Rating: 4/10 (21 December 2013)

I expected much from 'Now You See Me'. Just one look at the cast was promising enough, but most of all I was intrigued by the film since it seemed to deal with magic. I guess I wanted to be fooled, as they said in another (excellent) movie about magicians. Being fooled was pretty much everything I got out of seeing this one.
'Now You See Me' is all style and no substance, a Potemkin village of sorts. It looks great, has great cast and great special effects, all built to hide the fact there's a key ingredient missing, namely a story. The plot raises a lot of questions which remain unanswered (or get an answer in a "because-I-said-so" fashion), and is generally inconclusive, naive and unbelievable to the point where no great names or great acting can save it from wreckage.
Some people may mistake this film's incoherence for intelligence and I firmly believe that those people are its target audience. I don't take myself to be any smarter than anyone else, but when I watch a film and see half the things from way too far ahead but can't understand exactly why the other half happens, it's clearly either not a film for me or I'm not the right audience for the film. I could be wrong, but I guess it was made primarily for the people who didn't understand the other (excellent) movie about magicians I mentioned previously. I did find some enjoyment in this one, mainly from an aesthetic point of view, but, honestly, the only thing that kept me watching it past one hour mark was simply gorgeous Melanie Laurent.
I read that there is a sequel already scheduled. I don't know if it's going to be called 'Now You Don't', but I for one know I surely won't.
4/10