Abracadabra: Now You See Me

“Come in close, because the more you think you see, the easier it’ll be to fool you.
4 amazing magicians. 3 impossible heists. 1 billion dollars. This is no illusion.
Look closely, because the closer you think you are, the less you will actually see.
…Now you don’t.”

That’s the tagline of the movie I watched recently entitled Now You See Me. I only watched it at home on a 720p resolution a few weeks ago (yep, I downloaded it online. Thanks to Yify! *winks*). A few weeks before I watched the movie, I’ve been reading the hashtag post “I see you” on my bestfriend’s wall. I thought it was nothing. But it has been repeatedly posted. I finally realized it was a movie, or a part of a movie title, when I saw his post about “last full show” or something. As of writing, I am too lazy to find that post.

So anyway, to make the story short,  I Googled the phrase “I see you” and the IMDb page of “Now You See Me” came out of the search engine results (along with an actual “I See You” movie starring Resse Witherspoon. But that one’s back in 2006 so I slashed it off my options). Voila! It really is a movie. So I downloaded it. It was only just recently that I had the time to watch it. J

Anyway, for those who are too lazy (haha!) to change screen to Google it and at the same time too eager to continue reading this blog, let me give you my movie review of this one.

NOW YOU SEE ME is about four magicians, three men and a woman, who were brought together by a mysterious benefactor to put up a Magic Show. They call themselves “The Four Horsemen.”

During one of their shows in Las Vegas, as the final act, they were able to “magically” heist a bank in France in a concurrent manner with the help of one of their audiences, who seemingly teleported to a Parisian Bank, and activated the air duct which vacuums up the money and showered it onto the crowd in their show in Las Vegas. 

Because of this, and knowing that the money is really missing from the bank vault, they become “hot items” to the eyes of FBI. The exciting part of the story begins when an FBI agent and an Interpol detective were trying to prove that the bank heist that the “Four Horsemen” did during the show has nothing to do with magic. They even set a meeting with an ex-magician who makes money by exposing the secrets behind other magician’s tricks. Moreover, the mystery of the Four Horsemen’s benefactor also adds up to the spice of the storyline. Something that an audience, who was so into the magic tricks already, cannot easily predict who.

Personally, I find the movie entertaining. Well, besides from the fact that magic tricks shown were amusing, the plot of this movie is wildly clever and dubious. It’s like a box of chocolate (Forrest Gump), you’ll never know what you’re going to get. And it is like “Ocean’s Eleven” of the magic trick world. The movie combines the pleasure of well-engineering heist, ambitious thriller, but surprisingly witty approach throughout the plot. 

In every film I watch, there would always be “The First Impression.” In this one, I find myself entertained for the first seven to eight minutes. This is crucially reasonable since this is where characters were introduced. Though I was impressed by the hologram effect, which they called “Blueprints” (shown when the four characters finally met and assembled in a distinguished room or apartment) I find myself yawning at the conversation scenes at different occurrences because they were too long. Oh forgive me. I was just expecting that this film would show me more actions scene, interesting characters and smart dialogues because of the fact that its summary plot in IMDb contains the word “FBI” and “heists.” I know I was being stereotypical. But hey, that was just my expectation.

Eventually, my expectation was met at the second half of the movie. But don’t be dismayed, it wasn’t that bad. It was just me expecting more action scenes. Along the way, there were some scenes I enjoyed. Then I realized this is a more tamed, non-violent way of showing bank-robbing in a context of a fiction film with the experience of magic. So I guess, that’s just fine. What else can I expect from a David Copperfield-ish film, created with tricks of some higher level of cynicism and audacity? That’s narrative drama. But uh-ah, if you think this is a movie way too boring, no.

I suggest that when you have the attempt to watch the movie and experience the same predicament as mine at the early part of the film, then you better watch it ‘til the end. Like I said, there’s much to enjoy along the way. If I yawned at the first half, I heard myself laughing in bits at the second half of the film.

So, I will go back to my first comment: I find the movie entertaining.

Here’s the trailer from Youtube. If you haven’t watched it, then this may help you decide to watch it very soon. J