Now You See Me, Now You Don’t
review by Bobby Blakey
After the success of 2013’s Now You See Me, it came as no surprise that a sequel was released in 2016. It seemed as the magic was over with it, but here we are with the next chapter Now You See Me: Now You Don’t getting the gang back together including Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, and Morgan Freeman along with new additions Justice Smith, Dominic Sessa, Ariana Greenblatt, and Rosamund Pike with Zombieland and Venom director Ruben Fleischer at the helm. Can this latest chapter bring more of the magic of the previous films, or will it show its hand to early?
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Now You See Me: Now You Don’t follow the Four Horsemen who return along with a new generation of illusionists performing mind-melding twists, turns, surprises, and magic unlike anything ever captured on film.
As a fan of the first two films, it goes without saying that I was excited to see the Horseman back on the big stage. Even more so was getting the return of Fisher to the series who had to sit out the second film. I was worried that this film was going to feel more like just a passing of the torch to this younger cast as opposed to letting the original group shine. Thankfully it evens out the playing field to let them all shine through with the original cast still front and center.
Much like the previous films this story is over the top at times as it fuses yet another crime caper with magic bringing all the usual tropes to the forefront. The cast are all great as usual, but this new team and direction does give the film a different tone that doesn’t always work. I still very much enjoyed it but there are elements that didn’t hit as well as they hoped. There are plenty of fun magic moments that is always fantastic fun, but some feel more forced just for the sake of doing them as opposed to moving the story forward.
The farfetched nature to all of these films is part of the fun and it dives right in here pushing more of the world of “The Eye” to expand this universe in fun
ways. You have to watch these moves with an open mind and just let the fun appear as the magic unfolds on screen. I was happy to see that they made sure to address the missing Mark Ruffalo and Lizzy Caplan for this outing that still leaves doors to bring them back should they do more entries in the future.
I think this is the weakest film in the franchise so far, but that is more in that tonal shift that makes it feel familiar yet like something new. Even with its shortcomings I still had fun and hope it manages to get the audience back to the magic show because I would love to see the Horseman reunite once again for more magical nonsense.
Decide for yourself and check out Now You See Me, Now You Don’t in theaters now from Lionsgate.
