Now You See Me

After seeing Now You See Me earlier this week, I still feel cheated.
This movie had such a fantastic cast. I would have seen this movie no matter what it was about with a cast including names such as Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Mark Ruffalo, Isla Fisher, Melanie Laurent, Dave Franco, Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenburg. That kind of cast is just too good to resist.

The problem with the movie begins with the fact that there are just so many good actors. That's because it means there are so many characters, and each have their own back story. Add in three magic shows which have to be both performed and then explained, two love stories and a chase to find who is actually behind the burglaries, and by the end I felt cheated. Parts were also very predicable, and although I didn't see the final twist coming, it was very disappointing and I did hear a few groans in the audience (or was that me?).

What needed to happen was less of a focus on Mark Ruffalo, both his pathetic detective work and his love story, and more of The Four Horsemen (played by Isla Ficher, Jesse Eisenburg, Woody Harrelson and Dave Franco). These four all had great dialogue and too little time on screen. All my favourite parts belonged to them, especially the action scene where Franco uses magic to attack the police, which was very funny to watch and quite cleverly choreographed. Plus there's just something about Dave Franco's accent, isn't there? It's this sultry, slow, deep voice that I just cannot resist and from the moment he appeared on screen he was my favourite character . . . okay back to the movie!

The film uses Freeman to deconstruct the magic and explain how it actually worked in a sort of Ocean's 11-esque style, with different layers and you hear Danny Ocean explain how it's going to work while watching it happen. Apart from the fact that Ocean's 11 pulled it off brilliantly, while Now You See Me fell short. There are just far too many holes in the plot for my liking, and I can usually accept a few in most cases. Another thing that was extremely off putting was the spinning camera style that was used during the magic performances. I was sitting quite close to the screen (the cinema was packed!) which probably made it even worse, but it was still very annoying and I found it hard to concentrate on what was going on and what was being said during those times.

All that said I did enjoy it while I was watching it and it's actually a nice, light, enjoyable-if-you-don't-pay-too-close-attention film which has already done so well at the box-office that a few days ago they announced that there is to be a sequel.

What did you guys think? Have you seen it yet? Do you have plans to see it? Do you love Dave Franco as much as I do?