Rob Reviews "Now You See Me: Now You Don't"

The Now You See Me films are one of those things that are okay existing in a vacuum, but with Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, I have done that thing I have found myself doing a lot lately: revisiting the films that came before it before I attended an advance screening.  But more on that in a sec…

This time around, J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg) once again receives a mysterious tarot card that leads him to a group of youngsters doing much of the same things that he and The Four Horsemen use to do (almost literally): Charlie (Justice Smith), June (Ariana Greenblatt), and Bosco (Dominic Sessa).  They too would like to be a part of the mysterious society known as “The Eye,” and end up luring Atlas out of hiding to have them help him with a new trick.  This time, it involves stealing “The Heart,” the most expensive diamond in the world, from Veronika Vanderberg (Rosamund Pike), whose family in South Africa is into a LOT more than it seems.  With a little help from some friends, they work to expose the Vanderberg Corporation in the way that only they can.

Now then: do you NEED to watch the first two films to appreciate this one?  That answer is simply “no”.  As I stated earlier, these films can exist on their own (story exposition IS a thing with these things, and it is done in a way that does not seem shoehorn-ed in there), and they also work well together.  There are some subtle details that reference the two that came before this one, but if you don’t catch them, you will not really realize (or even care) that you did.

Even though I do my best to avoid spoilers as much as possible, Now You See Me: Now You Don’t even swerved me in a couple of cases as I was doing a bit of research going in, but  I will leave those be as I would like you to be able to enjoy the surprises as much as I did.  The normal twists and turns are here, and the stunts they pull do their best not to reveal anything about the kinds of slight-of-hand that are seen out and about.  If you are looking for “Magic’s Secrets: Revealed,” go ahead and look that old Fox show up on YouTube.  I don ‘t really dig going that way so I can be immersed in the moment, but you do you, my friend.

This film is a great way to spend a couple of hours getting away from the world, with solid cinematography and a fun story that kept me engaged with each and every scene.  The climax is just as grand as what has come before it, and even though there is quite a bit of artistic license taken, that is kind of the purpose here.  Don’t nitpick here and go enjoy this film!