Now You See Me

Ratings: 6.3/10

Film Class: C+

Genre: Mystery Thriller

Now You See Me is about a group of magicians who call themselves the Four Horsemen, who were brought together a year ago by an anonymous individual. Slowly gaining popularity with their Las Vegas show, they climaxed it one night with a bank robbery, by seemingly teleporting a member of their audience into a vault of an international bank to witness the heist. Finally grabbing the attention of the world, the Four Horsemen goes into the next phase of their routine... leading up to that one grand finale beyond anyone's wildest imagination... 

*major spoilers ahead* The plot's main theme is Misdirection, with a capital M, not forgetting the other obvious M, for Magic. Well, that's what makes up the bulk of a magician's modus operandi anyways so no big stunner there. But like any awesome magic trick, the movie packs a killer ending, one with a big twist. However, that one big twist works like a double edged sword - it was so twisted it turned out too far-fetched. It made the whole plot seem like a joke, and ironically, the twist turned out to be the director's greatest misdirection.

It almost felt as if the scriptwriters managed to buy-in the director with that one big twist... but midway directing the movie, director Louis Leterrier realised, "Darn, why didn't I notice that many loopholes in the script, guess I just I'll cover it up by misdirecting my audience with the stunner ending..." Well, it failed, for me. 

On the contrary, it wasn't thhhaaaat bad. There were connections and links here and there, but the killer ending didn't quite make sense in the overall context of the plot. Hmm, guess I'm harping so much on the ending that I'm missing the big picture here (advice I learnt from the movie)... the big stars.

There's a star studded cast, no doubt, with big names like Morgan Freeman, Isla Fisher and Michael Caine, but my absolute favourite turned out to be the one I'm least familiar with, Melanie Laurent (French actress), cos she was such an ethereal eye-candy. Despite the "grandeur" casting, only Jesse Eisenberg (best known for his lead role in The Social Network) delivered what I thought was the most convincing "act". 

I was quite turned off by the CG, looked too plastered on most of the time, and to make matters worst, the cinema I went to had one of the worst muffled sound system a paying member of the public shouldn't have to endure. 

Was never a fan of Mark Ruffalo (still think he can't act) who was the sceptical FBI detective, clueless most of the time and running around like a headless chicken; Woody Harrelson brought a bad light to mentalists by manipulating others with his skills (wouldn't be surprised that audience might steer away from mentalists after watching the movie), and Dave Franco "glorified" the works of pick-pocketing. 

No doubt the intended purpose of showcasing such "skills" is to add another level of coolness to the movie, but it kinda felt like the Four Horsemen were abusing their skills and abilities for selfish reasons. 

Overall, I did like the movie to a certain extend, because of the main theme on magic, and it was a delight to watch the star studded cast come together. But like we're all too familiar with the saying "Now you see me, now you don't", any layman will know what's coming... Now You See Me is a forgettable film that will very quickly vanish from the memory archive of its audiences...