Incredibly contrived, lazy script wastes the acting talent

Rating: 5/10 (19 September 2013)

Now You See Me starts off promisingly, but sadly spirals downhill very quickly. Nonsensical "magic trick" after nonsensical "magic trick" goes completely unexplained, and save for one minor trick near the start of the movie, the explanations behind those few for which explanations are attempted become more and more nonsensical. Few films ask you to suspend disbelief to this degree, and the rare few which do are universally terrible.
There is a great cast in this movie, and although the CGI is often mediocre, the cinematography is of the standard you'd expect from a mainstream Hollywood film. And yet, all is wasted because of a plot with gaping holes in it, the size of the Holland Tunnel. No attempt is made to fill them in, either. You watch scene after scene, asking yourself why you're even continuing, and hoping above hope that all will resolve itself in the end.
It doesn't. The ending is even more childish and ham-fisted than the rest of the movie. Now You See Me is a staggering disappointment, and it all comes down to one of the weakest scripts in recent memory.
What a shame.