Now You See Me, Now You Don’t is the third film in the Now You See Me universe. I enjoyed the first two, but I can’t say that I remember them on a detailed level. Hence, I can’t really tell if the storyline parts that are a continuation of the previous movies are really accurate. But on the other hand, it really doesn’t matter that much. I think this movie can stand on its own anyway. It’s mostly background stuff anyway, what happened to them after the second movie and so on. Internal affairs between characters, really.
When Now You See Me, Now You Don’t starts, they are all back together again. They perform a show and I, as an audience are baffled over the magic being performed. It just doesn’t seem plausible. But, there is a twist! I won’t spoil it, though. Let’s just say that everything isn’t what it seems.
Anyway, it continues on with this organization – The Eye, which If I recall correctly, are apart of at least one of the other movies as well. It’s a secret organization or society within the magic community that sends the “Four Horsemen” on a secret mission. But I don’t really care about the mission itself; it has something to do with this diamond company laundering money and generally being a scumbag corporation. And the owner doesn’t shy away from any methods to get richer and to cover up her past.
The main thing for me in Now You See Me, Now You Don’t is not what it’s about, it’s how it’s about it. I’m much more interested in the form of what happens than what happens. Or even why it happens, even if that’s an interesting matter either way. Mainly because it’s all surrounded by magic and trickery.
Some of the tricks performed in the movie baffled me. I understand that many things in movies can be completely faked, but I have also seen both Penn Jillette and David Copperfield react to the magic performed in the previous movies, and they seem to think that it’s “kinda” not impossible to perform, even if you have to make slight variations to make it happen. I’ll take their word for it. I might have been an amateur magician as a child, but I can’t pretend my knowledge comes even close to theirs regarding this subject.
So, I guess there is a fine balance between showing what is happening and explaining how they did it, because they do that in some cases, and revealing magic tricks that magicians around the world would want to keep secret. As a side note, I can mention that Penn (Jilette) & Teller have been refused memberships in magic organisations due to the fact that they sometimes reveal magic tricks as part of their act. It’s usually a big no-no to even hint at the solution to magic in those circles. And as a sub-note to that, I personally think that there is a fine line between not knowing the solution and being entertained, and the curiosity of actually finding out how an illusion is performed.
Continuing on. I really like the props used, I like how the characters instantly recognize a prop use but this or that famous magician. I, of course, cannot tell if it’s genuine or not. But they are believable when they explain the origin of this or that apparatus or method of trickery. I kind of only know about some of the legends, like Harry Houdini. Well, I guess I could go on with a few more names, but you’re here to read about the movie, right?
I think it’s well-acted, witty, and with plot twists that really suit me like a hand in a glove. The magic performed in Now You See Me, Now You Don’t makes perfect sense in the context of the movie, regardless if they could be done on stage or not. It’s entertainment, and that’s ultimately what film is all about. It’s a fun film that may not live up to its predecessors, but I like it!
