Quick Daily Review #8: Now You See Me (2013)

Now You See Me (2013)
Director: Louis Leterrier

Here is a movie with an all star cast, tons of creativity, and lots of sizzle. Sadly, though there’s no “there” there with this story. All the sizzle and flash is just that, sizzle and flash. I basically just listed the only reasons to see this movie. And in many ways its’ creativity is also its biggest downfall as it spends its time trying too hard to outsmart its audience rather than allowing us to grow and care about the characters, which would then lead us to be much more satisfied about how they then go about outsmarting the other people in this movie. Without that this movie is only interesting upon first view as a guessing game, when it could have been a truly fun group character driven heist movie like Ocean’s Eleven.

This movie suffers from swerve-o-rama. Yes, there is a very well done swerve at the end of Ocean’s Eleven, but it is strictly done at the end, and it does nothing to insult the intelligence of the viewer or undo any of the established storyline that had already been set previously. This movie lets loose with the swerves early on, and keeps them coming throughout. The great big magic gags are entertaining in and of themselves, but they lack the support of a greater framework to support them in any cohesive narrative that made me want to care about anything. I say this only because I really went into this film with high hopes. And why not? Take a look at the cast. Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman are all good in their roles here, but the writing here wastes them in a movie that is not deserving of any of their talents singularly, let alone cumulatively.

Daily Inquiry: Are you going to see the sequel to this movie coming out this year?