3.5 out of 5.0 stars
“Now You See Me: Now You Don’t,” the third movie in the “Now You See Me” franchise, opens with a variation on its iconic catchphrase. Magician and con artist J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg) stands on a stage in Brooklyn, New York, prepared to perform his first trick in years as part of his magic group, The Four Horsemen.
“The closer you think you are,” Atlas says. “The easier it’ll be to fool you into thinking old tricks are new.”
The line is a risky start to a sequel’s sequel. Like the Horsemen themselves, the movie is cocky, assuming that we are still invested in the story and will fall for its misdirection and sleight-of-hand. Though the gimmicks may feel familiar from prior movies, audiences will be pleased to see that the franchise still has some tricks up its sleeve.
Take the Horsemen’s Bushwick performance. At first-glance, the show appears to be a typical act for the group — part spectacle, part theft. Along with escape artist Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher), pickpocket Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) and mentalist Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), Atlas hacks the bank account of an obnoxious crypto bro in the audience, redistributing his wealth to the remaining attendees. But not all is as it seems. The Horsemen never reunite in Bushwick, and never steal from the crypto bro. Instead, the magic show has been orchestrated by a trio of Gen Z magicians (Ariana Greenblatt, Justice Smith and Dominic Sessa), using holograms and deepfakes to execute their Robinhood-style heist. Now you see the world-famous Four Horsemen; now you see three talented, tech-savvy teenagers with projectors and sheets of plastic.
This twist is the first of many. The plot is snappy, satisfying and predictably unpredictable. Though the real Horsemen broke up years ago, they are soon reunited by the instructions of The Eye, a secret society that sends skilled magicians on righteous but illegal adventures. Now, the Horsemen must set aside their disagreements, teaming up with the younger magicians in a heist to rob and expose a murderous South African money launderer.
Cards fly. Diamonds explode. Rooms turn upside down. The camera darts and spins in moments of action, blurring the lines between sleight-of-hand and CGI, misdirection and movie-magic. The results are both disorienting and thrilling. The cinematography often works against the elaborate sets, vying for the viewers attention. Is a maze of mirrors exciting enough without swooping camera work? “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” never waits to find out.
The script often alludes to subplots — romances, clashing personalities, unresolved arguments — but never fully explores them. The acting is effective but unmemorable. None of the characters are especially believable, but the magicians are convincingly cocky and the young people’s chemistry is fun to watch. The audience often gets the sense that the arrogance of the protagonists is a facade. But, with only hints of what’s underneath, the characters tend to come across as fake.
By relying on type-casting — Greenblatt plays an eye-rolling cool girl who is secretly fun, Sessa plays a moody bad boy who is secretly soft — the movie chooses to emphasize plot and world-building over characterization. The lack of character growth or depth is no huge loss; the audience is here to see magic, not learn the meaning of life.
The young accomplices, the franchise’s attempt at relevance, serve as foils to the Horsemen, starting off as fans but soon challenging the “wisdom” of the more experienced magicians. In one of the movie’s best moments, all seven magicians face off against one another, performing impressive tricks only to be exposed and one-upped by the next act.
“Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” is an enjoyable movie, best experienced in a movie theater. It is a little suspenseful, a little surprising and a little shallow. Coming out almost a decade after the franchise’s last installment, the movie is a delicious threequel to a series that almost disappeared into thin air.
