Now You See Me review: Truly amazing!

I have wanted to see this film for a very long time, so when I finally came to see it last night, it admittedly had a lot to live up to, and it delivered. So, I was surprised that when I looked up what other critics thought of this film, I came across some very scathing reviews. A positive review of Now You See Me was hard to come by, but comparatively a lot of comments by the general public were praising.

Now You See Me presented everything we were excited for when the trailer was first released way back in November of last year. It was slick, the magic tricks were brilliantly thought-out and completely logical (my only worry was that it would be too far-fetched), so why all the hate?

In a recent interview with some of the cast, it was said the film comes across as Ocean’s Eleven meets The Prestige and they seem to be quite accurate with that description. The idea of a group of people scamming the big bread-winners to steal obscene amounts of money links well to Ocean’s and it’s not just the magic that bears resemblance to The Prestige, but the idea that the audience is always kept guessing whether magic is actually real or if everything they’re seeing is just a trick.

The film plays out a little like a [really] modern day Robin Hood, as 4 street magicians band together to perform elaborate heists against millionaire business men in order to give some of that money to their fans. Seemingly led by an unseen “boss”, the quartet use instructions and blueprints given to them a year before to construct these awesome tricks.

The illusions themselves deserve to be recognised as original and quite frankly, meticulously invented. Magic is known to be hard to convey on screen and still maintain some of that impact that it would have if you were watching it live. You can’t look meticulously at the performer’s hands as the camera keeps strategically zooming elsewhere, you don’t have that one-on-one connection but something that Now You See Me doesn’t lose is the “wow factor”, especially when viewing in a large audience setting.  

Now, I am not normally a Jesse Eisenberg fan, and think that he comes across as an arrogant, sarcastic character in nearly everything he is in, despite the character description, but in this, it really works. In fact, like it or not, the film boasted an impressive number of talented names in the biz: Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, and Mark Ruffalo. Not forgetting Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman of course! Individually, the magicians were pretty enigmatic but when they quickly came together as The Four Horsemen, their dynamic worked well.  Harrelson brings undeniable humour as his character taunts the others with his mentalist skills, whilst Isla Fisher presents someone for the female viewers to relate to and James Franco’s brother Dave, well, provides the eye candy.

There’s not much back-story or character development, granted, but because the film is so ensemble-based rather than surrounding one role, you don’t really care or notice.

The only real criticism I can put forward when I sit here reviewing this movie was the ending (and possibly the order of the not-so-very-escalating magic acts). In a film that based all of its illusion on reality, and tricks that would be logically possible, the final scene including The Horsemen is a little too fantastical and comes across a little tongue-in-cheek, which doesn’t work with the smooth essence the film gave off thus far. (Look out for the carousel towards the end). 

The tagline of the movie was “Look close, because the closer you think you are, the less you’ll actually see” but I personally think the hard-to-please critics aren’t looking closely enough to appreciate the execution of Now You See Me. I tell you one thing, it’s certainly left me with a craving to go and see an old-school elaborate Vegas magic show.