“Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” review

This article contains spoilers!

The decade-long wait for the third movie in the Now You See Me franchise, Now You See Me: Now You Don’t arrived on screen with high expectations and lots of pressure. This third installment includes the majority of the original cast with the addition of some new, younger actors: the audience is introduced to Ariana Greenblatt playing June Rouclere, Dominic Sessa portraying Bosco LeRoy, and Justice Smith as Charlie Vanderberg. The franchise as a whole is about magicians who plan elaborate heists and schemes to scam the rich and use their money to give back to the community.

The movie starts by introducing the next generation of magicians and the new main characters of the series. The new magicians arrive at a secret magic show to announce the return of the Four Horsemen: J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Jack Wilder (Dave Franco), Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher), and Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson).

The Horsemen are the original group of magicians from the previous films who act in the role of Robin Hood. They are recognized as the most famous magicians with elaborate and unimaginable schemes. This is why the three young magicians decide to use them as bait to draw in important people to their show. It is revealed after the magic show that the Horsemen were not actually there, but instead were holograms created by the aspiring magicians to attract wealthy people who had obtained their money from dishonest means. The youngsters then steal their money and redistribute it to the less fortunate at the show.

The leader of the original group, Atlas, discovers the impersonation, tracks the three down, and challenges them to look beyond their surface-level magic. The three accept, but only because of a tarot card Atlas shows them with a message from “The Eye,” an elite and secret society for the world’s most skilled magicians.

The movie continues and depicts scenes of illusion, magic, and even some Formula One. The climax entails stealing a large diamond from a corrupt diamond manufacturer. In the end, the group of young magicians reveal to the world exactly how they pulled off the heist and why.

The consensus among fans is that the actors fit well together and had good chemistry. Their witty banter and teasing jokes made it seem like they weren’t actually acting. You could tell that the Horsemen’s purpose was to pass the mantle on to the younger generation by giving them actual roles to fill in their plot. It was enjoyable to see how each Horseman (except McKinney) took one of the three new magicians under their wing. These teacher-student relationships are a great example of the cast’s on-screen chemistry.

The film itself, however, got very mixed reviews with many believing it to be predictable and boring in between the “real” magic scenes, such as when they’re at a French chateau, which felt more like an escape room rather than real magic being performed.

Despite the lagging bits of the movie and some inaccuracies, I would recommend Now You See Me: Now you Don’t, after watching the previous two installments. The movie is fun, light-hearted, witty, and has the added bonus of the occasional adrenaline rush, making it the perfect movie to watch whenever you’re in the mood for something that keeps you guessing at every turn.