Now You See Me: Now You Don't

So I finally watched Now You See Me 3, and let's just say... the plot pulled a disappearing act on creativity. The story feels recycled just like a magic trick you've seen one too many times at a kid's birthday party. Honestly, it made Now You See Me 2 look like a masterpiece in comparison.

I did enjoy the cast reunion - Isla Fisher back in action was a pleasant surprise but beyond that, everything was just... plain. If you're going to make fans wait nearly a decade, at least give us something worth the wait, not a rerun in a new hat.

The only illusion here is thinking this sequel was worth the wait.

I have just watched the third film in this series, set roughly 10 years after the last.

The whole movie is around 10 people bickering. It is exhausting to watch and listen to. This movie is definitely for a younger generation than the last as this sort of constant barrage of verbal intercourse reminds me more of college kids bantering than anything else.

So, regardless of that its okay. Nice to see the band back together. Nothing going to set the world alight here just okay.

We do end up with what feels like the 10 horsemen but feel free to disagree.

How did a big budget, solid actor, much anticipated film yield such poor writing, directing and editing? Magic, apparently.

The trick here is to fool audiences into paying for this nonsense. Want to spend 2 hours of your life watching someone else ooh and aah in in a magic show or play in an escape room filmed on screen?. Only thing worse than the script may be Rosamund Pike's accent. Oy.

There are just far too many team members now (9 active to the plot and 1 more thrown in at the very end), and still it was missing one notable name from the second movie that would have elevated it more.

This type of heist film is better when we have a small team of 4 doing a mission impossible / hustle / leverage type double movie-length episode.

I know Atlas by name, the other 9 I have no idea what there names were.

Less of the CGI camera tricks. More focus on actual real world tricks and using them to solve crime.

And keep the budget low. We don't need expensive race cars (with an ending that is resolved off screen, when the character just turns up. No explanation given). No home alone optical illusion museum to set things in. It was just stupid.

Seriously too much money was spent on the sets, when a tighter more-focused script was what is needed.

It's watchable and at least they vanished a silk in a TT. They explained how the diamond was switched out. As stupid as that was (same as the car stealing scene). Security around a billion pound diamond was laughable. Even more so when the twist at the end is revealed and you realise how pointless the rest of the movie was.

This has been years in the making and it's finally come out! Was it worth it? I suppose it was fun with the gang back together but it's more of the same you've seen before but less complex which is both a good and bad thing as the tricks are more realistic but it loses that intrigue and mysticism. Aside from that it springs a new generation of magicians along with the classic gang and watching them work side by side up until the big reveal is engaging. They clearly have fun with getting them all back together and the interactions after years make this worth a watch for sure. It leaves room for more at the end but they could stop right there if they wanted to.

The cast is the best thing with them all reunited. I love Jesse Eisenberg so I enjoy seeing him again. Newcomers like Justice Smith, Dominic Sessa and Ariana Greenblatt are all great charismatic new characters too. Rosamund Pike as the villain is cool just cause it's her anyway.

They have the song abracadabra in this by Lady Gaga so that's another cool thing!

Great to see them back on screen again regardless of it being more of the same stuff with less complexity.