Now You See Me: Now You Don't

Now You See Me: Now You Don’t is in some ways just like a real magic trick.

It’s designed for fun and entertainment and is hard to take your eyes off but, underneath it all, you know it’s an illusion.

Unlike a magic trick, you can see right through this to the cash grab, rushed, manic and frankly baffling inadequacies that lie within.

It’s such a strange experience. On the one hand a tone-deaf, woefully written, laughably poor sequel to a pair of films that, whilst not exactly critically acclaimed, are cult classics and brilliant ‘can’t turn over if it’s on TV watches.’

On the other hand, this film serves its predecessors as another popcorn blockbuster with some great set pieces, some genuinely good surprises and twists and it really does keep you hooked.

It’s frustrating to think what a little editing would have done. The script is a non stop barrage of exposition and ‘saying character names so the audience know who they are.’ There are some hilariously bad lines that even these brilliant, all star actors cannot quite make work.

Likewise, think even just a little about the machinations of the plot and everything falls apart. Sure, that’s not the point but it’s absolutely riddled with holes.

[Slight spoilers to demonstrate this below]

At one point the Horsemen just appear on a private jet. At another, a character is shot and killed by standard police officers for no reason and it's never mentioned again. A baffling glass box torture/death device that the villain just happens to have is broken by a wedding ring and the less said about Rosamund Pike’s South African accent, the better.

Arguably even worse than this, after the brilliant ‘magic action’ scenes of the first two films where the gang would use tricks to break into high security facilities etc, everything here just ends up in a completely banal and generic fist fight.

We’re here for the illusions and the slightly surreal/just-on-the-cusp-of-fantasy magic – it’s what these films do best. Resorting to punch ups is beyond lazy and undoes all the 'skill' these characters are meant to have.

But, and there is a big but, it is just so damn fun, for good and for ill.

Sure, you could play a drinking game with the rule ‘drink every time you laugh at something bad’ and would feel suitably inebriated at film’s end but it is also meant to be silly and, when it does give you a ‘proper’ set piece, it largely delivers.

The climactic ‘big trick’ reveal is a relentless and thrilling chunk of the film and, even though there are some genuinely farcical ‘what the hell is happening’ moments you also will be glued to watching.

I guess there’s something in revisiting such a good bunch of actors and such a likeable film series. Like Pitch Perfect 3 before it, this almost ruins the trilogy but because it’s still these characters, it just about gets away with being a poorer imitation of what’s come before.

It even teases a sequel and, whilst all logic would suggest that is a monumentally terrible idea, you know there could be a rabbit in a hat somewhere.

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