After over 10 years of the magical Robin Hood act, it was good to laugh at a third appearance of the Four Horsemen with 'Now You See Me: Now You Don't.' With humorous companionship between original and new castmates, excellent magic scenes, and great heist music scoring by Brian Tyler, 'Now You See Me 3' was the best in the series.
Over 10 years after outsmarting Walter Mably and Arthur Tressler from their last bout, the Horsemen, played by Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, and Isla Fisher, team up with younger aspiring magicians, played by Dominic Sessa, Justice Smith, and Ariana Greenblatt, to expose Veronika Vanderberg, played by Rosamund Pike, a diamond mining mogul who plans to launder money for war criminals with a diamond known as the Heart.
Even if the Horsemen used a bunch of technology and trickery, Dave Franco's character Jack Wilder was right when he said that with the trouble with the COVID pandemic and AI and such, "We need magic more than ever." But nice as it was to see that the original team still had the talent, my attention was grabbed more by the younger aspiring Horsemen. For example, when their tarot cards revealed part of their journey was in a chateaux in the French countryside, it was amusing to watch Greenblatt's character June Rouclere become Jack's superior when her puzzle-solving skills beat Jack to unlocking said chateaux's door. And I really enjoyed how the gang went back and forth in proving who was superior at card tricks, from Isla Fisher's Henley Reeves somehow turning a card into an elegant white dress for her, or June's turning the card into imitation snow.
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| Left to right: Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Dominic Sessa, Dave Franco, Justice Smith, Isla Fisher, and Ariana Greenblatt in character at a chateaux scene in 'Now You See Me: Now You Don't.' Courtesy of imdb.com and Lionsgate. It was also amusing watching Sessa's character Bosco LeRoy one-up Horsemen leader J. Daniel Atlas, played by Eisenberg, in techniques such as reversing an upside down room in the chateaux by rotating a picture. One other fascinating part of the chateaux scene was when Woody Harrelson's Merritt McKinney stepped into a multidimensional room that looked like Doctor Strange's mirror dimension. All in all, I think the chateaux scene was my favorite part of the movie. I really enjoyed Smith's character of Charlie with his encyclopedic knowledge of magic and how he kind of took over Atlas' leadership role from time to time. |
But back to the original team, it seemed most of their work was keeping Atlas' ego in check. When they weren't doing that, it was fun to see them contribute to keeping the Heart away from Vanderberg and her thugs, such as Jack swiping thieves away with a curtain at an auction in Belgium. It was also good to see that Merritt was still a capable psychic, such as when he hypnotized thugs into playing Beethoven in Belgium, or Henley when she broke out of a water tank with the small diamond on her wedding ring and a little help from her friends, including surprise return Lula May, played by Lizzy Caplan. And despite his usual egocentric outlook, I liked how as the film went on, deep down, Atlas admitted his love for the team and his desire to keep them safe.
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| Ariana Greenblatt, Jesse Eisenberg, and Dave Franco in character in an escape scene in Belgium in 'Now You See Me: Now You Don't.' Courtesy of imdb.com and Lionsgate. |
Away from the heroes, Rosamund Pike played a good villain when she played Vanderberg. She was ruthless in trying to throw authorities off her scent of money laundering and other crimes committed by her family's company. She was not afraid to pull the trigger or a few magic tricks of her own, even when confronted by the charming yet aggressive Horsemen. But as fans of the franchise may already know, too bad that ruthlessness was no match for a different breed of professional tricksters.
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| Rosamund Pike as Veronika Vanderberg in 'Now You See Me: Now You Don't.' Courtesy of imdb.com and Lionsgate. |
In addition to the good heroes and the good villain, I enjoyed the magic. As I said, Greenblatt's character turned a card into imitation snow. Back to the team's escape with the diamond, Franco's character flicked cards to ward off security like he was Gambit from X-Men. And I liked how Brian Tyler's use of electronics and bongos highlighted the good and tense moments in the film, such as the younger and older magicians exposing corrupt rich people besides Veronika to Merritt reading Veronika's guilt over past crimes from her face, also highlighted with close-ups of her face. There were also good songs in the soundtrack, such as "Abracadabra" sung by Lady Gaga or "Lucky" sung by Reneé Rapp in the end credits.
So, all in all, I give 'Now You See Me 3' an 8.5/10 because it was the same plot from prior films, but told well with good cast, writing, magic, and music.
Check out 'Now You See Me: Now You Don't' in theatres now.
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