Now You See Me: Now You Don't

Mixing magicians into a hesit film for something undeniably cool, if a bit overly-complicated, Now You See Me gave us Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, and Isla Fisher as four young magicians brought together by a mysterious secret organization to use their skills and sleight of hand to deal a bit of justice to the wealthy who have skirted their responsibilities. The clusterfuck of a sequel even further over-complicated the story, removed key figures from the plot, and retconned the motivations of a key antagonist leading to a dismal follow up that somehow didn't kill this franchise.

A dozen years after the original's release, You See Me: Now You Don't offers a more straightforward story, despite a rather clunky climactic reveal (which it seems is simply a design flaw for these films), bringing back the Horsemen alongside a trio of young magicians (Justice Smith, Dominic Sessa, and Ariana Greenblatt) to take down an evil corporate type (Rosamund Pike) for the Eye.

Our four stars all feel a bit long in the tooth the third time around, but thankfully the trio of new stars adds some youthful enthusiasm to the proceedings. As for our villain, the script goes for overkill in making Pike not only evil diamond magnet laundering money for arms dealers but also saddling her with a dark past involving both familicide and Nazis.

Although not as strong as the original, its certainly better than the sequel as the film has some notably cool sequences such as the secret base of the Eye where the two groups of magicians learn to work together (even if aspects of it strain credulity). And, like in the earlier films, we do get multiple heists and plenty of sleight-of-hand.

The script does find a way to shoehorn in Morgan Freeman and include Lizzy Caplan. The first feels unnecessary, although the latter works fairly well. And Mark Ruffalo shows up for his obligatory cameo to set up a planned fourth movie in the franchise. However, Mélanie Laurent is sadly still missing in action. If there is indeed a fourth film coming can we please bring back the character from the first film who most notably believed in the power of magic?

• Title: Now You See Me: Now You Don't
• IMDb: link