Ridiculous, clichéd and unrealistic, this action thriller is largely forgettable but occasionally enjoyable.

Rating: 5/10 (12 July 2016)

In preparation for it's sequel, I decided to re-watch 'Now You See Me' for the first time since it's initial release. To be honest, it doesn't hold up and isn't a very good movie. It's alright, but nothing special. It thinks it's way smarter than it actually is; the direction is pretty bad and disorientating; the plot-twist makes no sense retroactively and is unneeded; the characters aren't developed enough and the magic (as well as the film as a whole) is so painfully fake and unrealistic. There are a couple of good scenes, but I wouldn't watch it again and the experience was largely forgettable.
The film follows a group of magicians who rob banks during their live stage shows, and the FBI agent tasked with bringing them down. This is a fairly interesting premise, I admit, but the movie fails to deliver on the potential of the story. The 'Four Horsemen' are initially all low-level street performers, before they are each given a tarot card by a mysterious hooded figure which leads them to discover the blueprints to a series of high-end magic tricks. All of this takes place before the opening title (which appears around thirteen minutes into the picture), setting up the rest of the plot. Unfortunately, the 'Horsemen' are largely excluded from the rest of the picture. By that I mean that, aside from a select few scenes, they are seen mainly on stage and we instead focus on the people trying to stop them. This weird perspective shift starts off slowly, but then builds to a point at which the 'Horsemen' are no longer the centre of attention and therefore no longer relatable. Since we are mostly at a distance from them, it makes it hard to care what they are doing and even harder to root for them. I think that the filmmakers were trying to instil a sense of awe, like we are literally in the audience of one of their shows, but that isn't the case. It doesn't help that their motivations are very weak, as they are simply blindly following the instructions given to them. The plot takes a few twists and turns but none of them truly amount to anything. The main twist, revealed at the end of the movie, makes absolutely no sense what-so-ever and is totally superfluous. It feels incredibly redundant, and it's no where near as clever as they think it is. It feels very unearned as there are no clues during the film - thus the reveal is impossible to predict. It is genuinely pointless and stupid, making no sense retroactively. The scenes involving the character in question all fall apart, it's completely nonsensical that they'd even be involved in the events of the plot. Their motivations are somewhat clear, though their actions are improbable and contrived, and in the end the twist tears the logic of the movie apart.
The direction is pretty bad here, too. I don't understand why the director (Louis Letterier) felt the need to be constantly moving the camera. He almost always spins the camera around his characters, to the point where it is nearly nauseating. It really gave me a sense of motion sickness, comparable to a Michael Bay flick, and made the film very hard to follow visually. It also cuts incredibly often, and each of these cuts feels very jarring. The average shot length must only be a couple of seconds at the most. The action scenes rely on shaky-cam and even quicker editing to make them work. Another thing that stated to annoy me was the lack of practical magic on display. Sure there are a few tricks here or there, but the majority are absolutely ludicrous. One trick involves the 'Horsemen' creating giant bubbles with their hands, with a member then diving into one - causing them to float. The picture takes liberties with the power of mentalist and hypnotism, too, often relying on suggestion and preconditioning for some tricks involving 'randomly selected' people. It also makes the FBI look pretty incompetent, as they fail to see through some ruses which would be very obvious upon closer inspection.
The acting here isn't terrible, though they do have to work with the material they are given. Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine are great as always, a scene involving the two was one of the highlights of the flick, but they are bogged down by a heavy-handed and on-the-nose screenplay - not to mention that Caine's character disappears from the movie for no real reason. Freeman's character is largely there to provide exposition, explaining to the audience how some of the 'magic' was done in brief flashbacks, though he often feels omniscient. Mark Ruffalo does what he can, bringing the best performance from any of the leads, but his character is quite unlikable and fairly clichéd. The 'Four Horsemen' (consisting of Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Woody Harrelson and Dave Franco) are criminally underdeveloped and stereotypical. Each of them is an archetype commonly seen in film, and commonly seen in their own filmography. The first twenty to thirty minutes were awful, as the scenes were all conventional and the dialogue was tiring (it was attempting to set up a history, and several personalities, but ended up feeling quite trite.) There are a couple of entertaining chase scenes, though, and a fight-scene that is as enjoyable as it is dumb; plus, some of the middle act is actually engaging.
Overall, 'Now You See Me' is a ridiculous and largely forgettable film that tries to be too smart for it's own good. It's twists and turns are irrelevant and nonsensical, with the characters being stereotypical and underdeveloped. The film isn't terrible, it picks up a little in the second act and maintains a fast pace, but it isn't great either. I'd say it is alright, enjoyable enough to warrant a watch if it sounds interesting to you but nothing to intentionally seek out otherwise: 5/10