Now You See Me: Now You Don’t see The Four Horsemen reuniting for yet another heist, almost a decade after the second movie was released. We’re promptly reintroduced to the familiar faces of The Four Horsemen, J. Daniel “Danny” Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher) and Jack Wilder (Dave Franco), who have reunited to perform after 10 years away from the spotlight. Only to soon realise that the entire show was orchestrated by holographic figures of the iconic magicians conducted by a trio of budding magicians, Charlie (Justice Smith), Bosco Leroy (Dominic Sessa), and June (Ariana Greenblatt). The magic act quickly garners the attention of Atlas, who enlists them to help him retrieve a priceless diamond from Veronika Vanderberg (Rosamund Pike). Upon stealing the diamond, the rest of the Four Horsemen appear and get the group out of the unruly mess they created, reuniting them for the first time since they parted ways.
These movies fall under the crime genre, which, of course, includes the heist genre. They follow the standard characteristics, including getting a team together, planning the robbery, executing the plan, encountering a significant problem, and then performing a final bow once everything’s been tied together nicely. The only difference with these films is the added touch of magic. Magic is more than just a few silly tricks; magic elicits a sense of mystery and challenges people’s perceptions of reality. It creates an experience that can be shared with a community and builds a sense of wonder in people’s minds. Which is why I feel like these movies, regardless of whether or not they’re objectively groundbreaking cinematic masterpieces or not, will always reel audiences in.
Now, with that said, even though the magic tricks and illusions were, for lack of a better word, fun, this film felt more like a nostalgia trip than a fully thought-out movie. Some might even say that the movie felt more like fan service than anything else. This was mainly evident through the dialogue, where it feels like it tries really hard to replicate the same sense of whimsy and enchantment that the first movie delivers, which at times it definitely did, aided by the accompanying score (composed by Brian Tyler, the composer of the first two films), that effectively created that sense of nostalgia. But as the film went on, some scenes felt unfinished and lacked key beats, most likely due to lazy writing. While it was great to see a bunch of big reveals for older beloved characters, Lizzy Caplan coming back as Lula May particularly felt like they just dropped her into the film so they could find a reason to get all the returning stars onscreen with no big explanation.
Bringing in new characters in addition to keeping The Four Horseman at the core also made the plot feel quite convoluted. You get bits and pieces of context for each character from statements made by other characters, rather than delving into their backstories, allowing viewers to build their own thoughts and feelings about who these people are. We get a quick once-over of who the newbies are through Atlas, conveniently giving audiences a rundown of what he uncovered about Charlie, Bosco, and June right off the bat. Tick on their backstories! And once The Four Horsemen are reunited, we get a rushed explanation for why their friendship dwindled – a botched heist in Russia amongst other things – and a very fitting conversation revolving around where their careers have taken them during their time apart. While it was nice to see the newer characters pair up with a Horsemen based on their expertise and adjacent personality traits, I’m not sure if it really added any substance to the film other than a set up for the next instalment.
Another element of the film that was overshadowed by the abundance of characters was the presence of magic, or lack thereof. It felt like there were only 2 big magic sequences (amongst the card tricks and little illusions here and there) that put magic at the forefront. One of those scenes also just ended up being action sequences with optical illusions as the backdrop to try and embody the sense of magic. What I feel was most impressive about the other two films, are more of the practical tricks with cards, or illusions that didn’t feel like it relied too much on CGI, which this film did the opposite of.
With that said, the best part of the entire film was the chemistry between the cast. This concept of a found family bleeds through not only The Five Horsemen, but the newer recruits as well. You can feel everyone’s chemistry through the screen, which only makes the film more enjoyable to watch, (especially when magic plays a part), despite the undeveloped plot. Oh and that magic sequence where they all proceeded to out trick each other was also pretty cool.
One can only hope that the added characters and the now Five Horsemen create a more rounded fourth instalment of the franchise. This film was more of a filler to introduce these new characters and an easy way to bring everyone back together, rather than something that could hold up to the first or even second film, because it unfortunately does fall short in comparison. More magic might have filled the gaps this film had, and it could have also brought back some of the film’s more campy and exhilarating elements, which it ultimately lacked due to an oversaturated storyline and characters. But despite the few issues this film had, it’s hard not to be blinded with nostalgia, because for those who loved the other movies, seeing this group together is a nice trip down memory lane, and is honestly just a senseless fun film.
