In preparation for its sequel, I decided to re-watch 'Now You See Me (2013)' for the first time since its initial release. To be honest, it doesn't hold up and isn't a very good movie. It's alright, but nothing special. It thinks it's way smarter than it actually is, its direction is pretty disorientating, its unnecessary plot twist makes no sense retroactively, its characters aren't developed enough and its magic (as well as the film as a whole) is painfully fake and unrealistic. There are a couple of good scenes, but I wouldn't watch it again and the experience is largely forgettable.

The film follows a group of magicians, who rob banks during their live stage shows, and the FBI agent tasked with bringing them down. This is a fairly interesting premise, I admit, but the movie fails to deliver on the potential of its story. The 'Four Horsemen' are initially all low-level street performers before they are each given a tarot card by a mysterious hooded figure. This leads them to discover the blueprints to a series of high-end magic tricks. All of this takes place before the opening title (which appears around thirteen minutes into the picture), setting up the rest of the plot. Unfortunately, the 'Horsemen' are largely excluded from the rest of the piece. By that I mean that, aside from a select few scenes, they are seen mainly on stage and we instead focus on the people trying to stop them. This weird perspective shift starts off slowly, but then builds to a point at which the 'Horsemen' are no longer the centre of attention and, therefore, no longer relatable. Since we are mostly at a distance from them, it makes it hard to care what they are doing and even harder to root for them. I think that the filmmakers were trying to instil a sense of awe, to make us feel like we are literally in the audience of one of the characters' shows, but they kind of failed. It doesn't help that the characters' motivations are very weak, as they are simply blindly following instructions given to them. The plot takes a few twists and turns but none of them truly amount to anything. The main twist, revealed at the end, makes absolutely no sense whatsoever and is totally superfluous. It feels incredibly redundant, and it's no where near as clever as the filmmakers think it is. It feels very unearned as there are no clues during the film; the reveal is impossible to predict. It is genuinely pointless and stupid, making no sense retroactively. The scenes involving the character in question all fall apart when you know their true nature. It's completely nonsensical that they'd even be involved in the events of the plot. Their motivations are somewhat clear, though their actions are improbable and contrived, and in the end the twist tears the logic of the movie apart.

The direction is pretty bad here, too. I don't understand why the director (Louis Leterier) felt the need to be constantly moving the camera. He almost always spins the camera around his characters, to the point where it is nearly nauseating. It really gave me a sense of motion sickness, comparable to a Michael Bay flick, and made the film very hard to follow visually. It also cuts incredibly often, and each of these cuts feels very jarring. The average shot length must only be a couple of seconds at the most. The action scenes rely on shaky-cam and even quicker editing to make them work. Another thing that's annoying is the lack of practical magic on display. Sure there are a few 'legitimate' tricks here or there, but the majority are absolutely ludicrous. For example, one involves the 'Horsemen' creating giant CGI bubbles with their hands, before a member dives into one and floats. The picture takes liberties with the power of mentalism and hypnotism, too, often relying on suggestion and preconditioning for some tricks involving 'randomly selected' people. It also makes the FBI look pretty incompetent, as they fail to see through some ruses which would be very obvious upon closer inspection.

The acting here isn't terrible, though the actors do have to work with the material they are given. Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine are great as always (a scene involving the two was one of the highlights of the flick), but they are bogged down by a heavy-handed and on-the-nose screenplay - not to mention the fact that Caine's character disappears from the movie for no real reason. Freeman's character is largely there to provide exposition, explaining to the audience how some of the 'magic' is done in brief flashbacks, though he often feels omniscient. Mark Ruffalo does what he can, bringing the best performance from any of the leads, but his character is quite unlikable and fairly clichéd. The 'Four Horsemen' (consisting of Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Woody Harrelson and Dave Franco) are criminally underdeveloped and stereotypical. Each of them is an archetype commonly seen in film, and commonly seen in their own filmography. The first twenty to thirty minutes are awful, as its scenes are all conventional and its dialogue is tiring (it attempts to set up a history, and several personalities, but ends up feeling quite trite). There are a couple of entertaining chase scenes, though, and a fight scene that is as enjoyable as it is dumb. Plus, some of the middle act is actually engaging.

Overall, 'Now You See Me (2013)' is a ridiculous and largely forgettable film that tries to be too smart for it's own good. Its twists and turns are irrelevant and nonsensical, and its characters are stereotypical and underdeveloped. The film isn't terrible, but it isn't great, either. It picks up a little in its second act, maintaining a fast pace and having a few enjoyable sequences. Ultimately, though, it's nothing more than average. It's entertaining enough to warrant a watch if it sounds interesting to you, but nothing to intentionally seek out otherwise: 5/10.