The third installment of the Now You See Me franchise, Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, feels like a desperate attempt to recreate the energy of the first movie, which they lost terribly in the second film. And to achieve that, the writers of the movie are recreating all the familiar tropes in the franchise in a different story. With the flow of set pieces lacking the grace of the first movie and the final twist feeling like a silly rehash of something familiar, Now You See Me: Now You Don’t just feels like a script that just wants to milk the popularity rather than push things further.
So, after almost ten years of disappearing from the public eye, one of the horsemen, Atlas, gets to know about these rookie magicians who were pretty much deepfaking the originals to do their bit of “social justice.” Long story short, Atlas recruits them for his mission of stealing a diamond named “The Heart” from Veronika Vanderberg, the head of a Diamond Company who has a dubious history. How this seemingly simple heist mission escalates into something big that includes almost all the horsemen is what we see in Now You See Me: Now You Don’t.
What was very evident in the idea of this movie is the lack of innovativeness. Just like the Fast and Furious franchise, they are trying to expand the world by adding characters. Even though there is energy to the narrative in the initial bits of the movie, there is a sense of predictability. When the team reaches the abandoned mansion-like place, most of the setups are pretty obvious, excluding one. As the story moves forward, the movie wants our heroes to create plans with extravagant ideas that include smart usage of magic. But none of those moments has the zest of the original. The only set piece that even comes closer to looking fun on screen was the one inside a police station featuring Ariana Greenblatt. But it got over way too swiftly.
There are a lot of generic beats to the writing of this movie. Be it the way they have created an antagonist or the way they have shown that character’s backstory, it just feels far too cliched. The only reason we feel interested in the story is because of the sporadic magic. But there too one can see the writing opting for unexciting twists and turns. The rivalry among the team members, the troubled past, and the equations are all something one would have seen in many other films. Like I said, this movie is trying to reuse everything we have seen in the last two movies, and it even recreates bits that made the second part a little too outlandish.
Jesse Eisenberg reprises his role as the slightly nerdy J Daniel Atlas. Woody Harrelson is also there as Merritt, but this time with considerably less screen time. Dave Franco is now a veteran, with the new member, June McClure, played by Ariana Greenblatt, giving him competition. Isla Fisher comes back to the franchise, and Lizzy Caplan is also there, almost like an extended cameo, along with Morgan Freeman. Dominic Sessa plays the role of the most arrogant one in the new lot. In terms of scope to perform, I would say the only beneficiary of the movie is Justice Smith. Rosamund Pike, as the main antagonist, has been given this very poorly written old-school villain character that just has no layers.
Now You See Me: Now You Don’t is extremely underwhelming in terms of writing. The first film in the franchise, at least, had some illogical yet visually fun set pieces. The second installment was trying to push things way too much. Despite the edits and visuals, along with the thumping background score trying to elevate everything, this new addition to the franchise just feels creatively dull. With one more film in the offer, I really hope they will look into the elements that made the first film a guilty pleasure popcorn entertainer.
