Now You See Me

But not for long. This movie was a big disappointment for me and had I not been amidst a hundred cars at the Drive-In Movies, incapable of physically leaving, I just might have. But because I preferred not to scratch my own car or others', and of course because I wanted to give you a full description of why I disliked the movie, I stayed and gave it chance after chance after chance. Until of course, I ran out of chances to give.

Given the respectable cast (Morgan Freeman, Mark Ruffalo, Michael Cain, Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, ...), one would expect a respectable or at least entertaining movie. I see now that it is best to keep one's expectations low..

None of the actors I greatly admire and whose work I've always enjoyed watching were able to save this cliché, cheap and far-fetched storyline. The movie is about four magicians who form a neat little hip group, making magic cool again, pulling a Robin Hood, and showing off their tricks while trying to make all of them sound incredibly complex and intelligent. Which of course, they are not. The tricks, I mean.. Not the characters. The characters deserve an entirely more elaborate negative critique.

Jesse Eisenberg, who played Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network and portrayed the role of the cocky, socially awkward nerd extremely well, now plays the role of the - wait for it - cocky, socially awkward but very talented magician. Considering the small change in character, one would expect this to go off quite well. On the contrary, Eisenberg's character is given considerably less intelligent lines and endearing qualities, leaving absolutely no justification for his arrogance, making his character seem petty and douchy. I personally took offense at how this movie and its characters continually presented themselves as genius masterminds, all the while assuming they would leave their audience guessing and completely mesmerized. I would have accepted this had the characters been anything more than one-dimensional.

Of course, when I hear "Michael Cain" and "magic", I'm reminded of The Prestige. Its flawless cinematography, directing, acting and writing make it impossible to compare it to Now You See Me. Of course the mood of both movies couldn't be more radically different: one is dark, arty and intelligent, the other is simple, commercial and full of bad CGI. Even though it's probably best never to compare a movie to another, Now You See Me can be likened - at best - to Ocean's Eleven. Which, with all its sequels, would still surpass the aforementioned on every level, with ease.

Morgan Freeman, the only actor - I find - who can credibly pull off playing God, played a rather boring and forgettable role in this movie. While he did the best he could with the story and the lines he was given, I just couldn't see the importance of the part he played. His only function was that of a soundboard for other actors to recap what just happened and explain their theories to, so as to point out all the obvious developments for the intellectually challenged viewers.

Woody Harrelson's character, a mentalist, was the only one with a somewhat amusing personality. I wouldn't go as far as to call his part funny, but perhaps fun-ish...

I won't be giving away any spoilers - not that that would ruin the movie for you, it really needs no help in that - but I will say that the plot twist is a predictable one. Not the fun predictable kind, but the "ah man, I really hoped they wouldn't go there"-kind. Not simply because there are about 500 better plot twists readily available, but also because there is absolutely no reason to go there at all unless you'd like to appeal to the Walt Disney target audience. In which case, I recommend adding songs and dances. In fact, singing and dancing are probably the only things that actually could save this movie for me.