The Dumbest Major Movie Franchise Strikes Again

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Creating believable magic on film is incredibly difficult. Movies inherently rely on illusion and trickery – cuts, editing, and special effects. So, simply making something appear to vanish isn’t impressive. Successful films about magic either openly acknowledge their artificiality, like Nightmare Alley and Santa Sangre, or cleverly reveal how the illusions are created, as seen in The Prestige. Those that fall between these approaches often fail because they try to build magic on top of already unbelievable scenarios, leading to boredom, frustration, and even anger. It’s particularly irritating when a movie about magic feels completely lacking in wonder.

The third installment of the Now You See Me series, Now You Don’t, brings back the Horsemen – a team of magicians who use their elaborate shows to pull off heists. They steal from the wealthy and powerful, giving the spoils to their fans, essentially acting as Robin Hoods with illusions. The film suggests we all need a little magic these days, especially given current events, but unfortunately, it doesn’t quite deliver. While aiming to be a blend of magic, heist, humor, and romance, the movies feel more like superhero stories. The Horsemen aren’t clever illusionists; they seem to have actual superpowers. For example, Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson) doesn’t just hypnotize people – he turns them into zombies instantly. And Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) throws cards that act like guided missiles, curving around obstacles to hit their targets.

It’s been almost ten years since the last Now You See Me movie, and this third film acts as both a sequel and a continuation of the original’s story, bringing back the original team while introducing a new generation of illusionists. The film opens with a large-scale performance where a group pretending to be the Horsemen steal from a wealthy cryptocurrency investor. However, it’s soon revealed that this was a cleverly faked show, with the original heroes imitated by a young performer named Bosco Leroy (played by Dominic Sessa), while Justice Smith and Ariana Greenblatt play a tech expert and a pickpocket who actually carry out the theft.

Soon after, the new group of illusionists encounters J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), the leader of the original Four Horsemen. The other veteran performers – McKinney, Wilder, and escape artist Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher) – also arrive, seemingly called to the new team’s headquarters by a series of cryptic cards – the favored way the Eye, a secret global network, used to communicate with the Horsemen. Their target this time is Veronika Vanderberg (Rosamund Pike), a wealthy and corrupt socialite and diamond mogul from South Africa.

While Now You Don’t has all the necessary ingredients – a villain you love to hate and a charming cast – it lacks the spark to make the story engaging. The fundamental problem is this: we enjoy magic because it showcases incredible human skill. But these films undermine that idea. The explanations for the illusions in the Now You See Me series are even less believable than the tricks themselves, relying on plot devices rather than the characters’ abilities. Ultimately, these movies destroy the wonder of both a well-performed trick and its surprising reveal – and they don’t work well as heist movies either.

This latest installment is a bit less jarring than previous ones, thanks to director Ruben Fleischer’s improved action sequences and Jesse Eisenberg’s comfortable performance as the self-absorbed Atlas. While the other characters constantly call Atlas unpleasant, he remains recognizably Eisenberg, but manages to be compelling enough to make us wonder what he’ll do next. Newcomer Sessa matches Eisenberg’s attitude beat for beat, radiating a retro charm. The new actors, Smith and Greenblatt, do a solid job, though the returning cast members seem disengaged. Franco, in particular, delivers his lines with a familiar, listless tone, as if questioning why he’s even there. Pike, a captivating presence, leans into the film’s silliness with an over-the-top South African accent for her character.

This movie exists because the previous installments were successful and have a dedicated fanbase, even passionate superfans. For some, the films’ sheer silliness might be the very thing they enjoy. While it doesn’t quite reach the energetic heights of the Fast & Furious series, it shares a certain spirit. In a landscape of overly serious blockbusters packed with complicated storylines, this movie’s unapologetic lack of pretension could be seen as a refreshing act of defiance. While Hocus Pocus never aimed to shock, these films suggest maybe they can.

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2025-11-13 18:56