Monday, June 10, 2013

Now You See Me


If I had a magic wand, I would zap the shit out of Now You See Me's editing, a flaw which really knocks down a movie I felt was pretty solid otherwise.

It certainly has the star power to achieve excellence. Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco, and Woody Harrelson star as the Four Horsemen, magicians with an unusual power to reward their audiences with boatloads of money. Mark Ruffalo leads the FBI investigation determined to expose the thieves with Morgan Freeman along for the ride providing hints as the movie goes further and further. Everyone's having a blast here and it shows.

The visuals here are top notch, though there's clearly no shadow of doubt that the stunts aren't authentic, you would certainly have a hard time believing that as the tricksters are working their magic (their first act is easily the most impressive). The look of Now You See Me alone is worth viewing.

Sadly, that magic and sparkle could have been applied to the editing and progression as the story wraps up. So much action, so much chasing, so much fighting, and yet the grand twist is wrapped up before you can say ta da, and there's an obligatory romantic subplot which easily could have disappeared all together. I can't see I saw the twist coming but half-assing the motivation of the mystery mastermind would have made the twist even stronger. If there would have been a bit more tightening in the editing and a bit of cutting out on everything else, Now You See me would have left a more magical impact then it does in the end.

2/4

No comments:

Post a Comment