It took a strangely long time for a viable, moneymaking Hollywood franchise, but the magicians-turned-thieves-turned-folk-heroes the Four Horsemen are finally back for a third time in Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, another amusing but disposable installment of an amusing but disposable series.
Though this is only part three, Now You See Me: Now You Don’t accounts for the nine-year gap since the second film by essentially blending elements of a standard new installment with the kind of legacy sequel vibe you’d expect from a later chapter of a franchise returning after a dormant period. The film’s focus is initially on three young magicians – Charlie (Justice Smith), Bosco (Dominic Sessa), and June (Ariana Greenblatt) – who have been inspired by the Four Horsemen’s Robin Hood-style methods of stealing from the rich and corrupt. They meet one of their inspirations in the flesh when Jesse Eisenberg’s J. Daniel Atlas recruits them to help him nab an incredibly valuable diamond from Veronika Vanderberg (Rosamund Pike), a powerful CEO using her company to fund criminal activities.
It’s then revealed that Atlas’ old pals – Merritt (Woody Harrelson), Jack (Dave Franco), and Henley (Isla Fisher) – have also been recruited for the same heist, reuniting the original Four Horsemen who previously parted on bad terms. The film moves forward with this larger group that juggles both the new and returning characters, and in typical Now You See Me fashion, some rather paper-thin characterization for the majority of them. There’s also too much trite and uninspired banter about whether the “kids” or the “old-timers” are the savvier, more talented magicians.
Nevertheless…it’s also kind of charming? This is the strange spot the Now You See Me series exists in. They’ve always felt like paycheck movies for their overqualified cast, yet they also manage to be likeable and entertaining enough thanks to the fun heists-but-with-magic-tricks core element and the chemistry between the actors. There’s plenty of jokes that are groaners, and yet a healthy amount of them land too. It helps a lot that it genuinely feels like the cast is having a good time together, which goes both for the returning folks and the newcomers, as the chemistry between this group extends to the new recruits this time around.
Of course, with such a large cast, some have more to do than others, with Eisenberg’s still amusingly smug Atlas and Smith’s tech-savvy Charlie among those who get a bit more focus, or at least get to stand out thanks to more physical scenes, as does Greenblatt’s Jane. Presented as a kind of Now You See Me: The Next Generation parallel for Franco’s Jack with similar lockpicking skills, Jane is also able to use a bunch of parkour-style leaps and dodges in fights; it’s the type of “I guess she’s an amazing gymnast too?” touch you just kind of have to go with. Meanwhile, Jack’s ability to turn playing cards into throwing weapons with the kind of precision Marvel’s Gambit or Bullseye would respect continues to provide a crowd-pleasing touch. On the flip side, as welcome as it is to have the ever-charismatic Fisher back in the series after her real-life pregnancy led to her missing the second film, it still feels like she could have been given more to do.
Reuniting with his Zombieland stars Eisenberg and Harrelson, franchise newcomer Ruben Fleischer takes over as director and manages to keep the energy high, with the only slow spots occurring when the film goes for a more dramatic, emotionally impactful moment that fails to resonate thanks to the lack of character depth. Returning composer Brian Tyler once more does a lot of heavy lifting here, giving the film a rousing, engaging score that elevates several key sequences.
As always, the film plays fast and loose with the magic tricks and the big audience buy-in on the Horseman not having actual magic powers but using absolutely insane – and one assumes insanely expensive – technology and trickery to fool those around them. Still, it’s hard not to enjoy the “gotcha” moments they pull off, even when we don’t get an explanation for how they pulled it off. There’s some clever imagery as well, most notably in a sequence set inside a magician-made mansion with several strange rooms – one looks like it’s upside down, one is filled with mirrors, and one has serious perspective issues – that the Horsemen use to disorient their opponents.
Pike has a good time as this movie’s classically diabolical villain, and the movie has some decent beats that play on the history of the series. This includes 88-year-old Morgan Freeman, who is understandably beginning to slow down and show his age onscreen, but who still provides a typically comforting presence in his appearance as franchise regular Thaddeus Bradley. On the expanded continuity front, the film accounts for why Mark Ruffalo’s Dylan Rhodes and Lizzy Caplan’s Lula aren’t joining the group on this heist in a manner that mostly plays fair. Another slightly shakier point, but one you can mostly fan-explain away, is why Henley – who was not present for the big reveal about his character at the end of the second movie – greets Thaddeus with a big hug when we’ve only seen them as enemies.
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