An Exciting Rare Use of a Magic Theme in a Movie

Rating: 8/10 (17 January 2019)

3 June 2013. Magicians don't seem to have played much of a major role in the history of movies, outside the world of fantasy such as The Wizard of Oz (1939) or the Anthony Hopkin's occult Magic (1978) that earned him a best actor Golden Globes nomination. This rare resurgence this year of magic with the beautiful 3-D fantasy film Oz The Great and Powerful (2013) or the less than well received hokey comedy movie The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013) along with perhaps never to be released comedy Desperate Acts of Magic (2013) brings along with it this rare crime-thriller movie where magic forms the basis of the storyline of Now You See Me.
The screenwriter's seem to have taken a lot from the television series Leverage (2008-2013) which itself won the People's Choice Award for Favorite Cable TV Drama (2013) and oddly enough that show doesn't use magic as its theme but uses creative deception and misdirection like a grifter in all its episodes for rebalancing the scales of justice. The most comparative magic-themed movies would include the more personally involved competition between two rival musicians in this psychological thriller between Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale in The Prestige (2006) and the period crime psychological, mystery thriller without the action The Illusionist (2006) which included its own powerfully surprising twist both which focused more on the human drama rather than on the spectacular crime mystery action thriller or even the more poignant and perhaps even more emotionally, more intimately personal and bitingly delightful performance of John Malkovich in The Great Buck Howard (2008).
Now You Can See Me suffers somewhat with its omission of a flashback at the beginning of the movie that sets the basis for this story and instead uses a present time narrative to eventually flesh out the back story which is a crucial element of the emotive humanity of the entire movie. Overall this movie is fast paced, with at least three major plot twists along with others and seemingly magical sequences that sometimes are rather predictable and at other times unexpected, but none that exceed that of the television episodes from Leverage or perhaps even the old Mission Impossible television series (1966-1973). This fusion of magic, crime, and psychological gaming becomes a who and how done it audience game on the big screen, even the opening sequence of the guessing the playing card number and suit by the theater-going audience gets them ooh and awe. It's hard to disassemble this movie from many other clever action thrillers because the use of the magic theme is new and exciting like a new Disneyland ride and rarely used, if any on this level, as the actual part of a movie as opposed to actually making the movie. Nevertheless, the movie is refreshing and entertaining, keeping the audience interested and guessing throughout.