Louis Leterrier's
Now You See Me is a film that comes with expectations. First of all its cast -Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Melanie Laurent, Woody Harrelson, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine- is filled with talent. Secondly its concept - a magic troupe robbing a bank without actually being there- has so much potential going for it that its trailer might actually fool you into thinking it could be a good movie. Thirdly, I'm a sucker for movies about magic, just look at my ten best list of 2006, you'll find two of them
The Illusionist and
The Prestige. Those films knew how to fool their audiences and stayed one step ahead of them the entire way through.
Now You See Me commits the biggest sin a movie about magic should avoid at all cost, it ends up never staying one step ahead of its audience. We know what's coming every step of the way. We follow it all the way through waiting for the big HAHA moment which never comes. Much of the blame must lie in Louis Leterrier, a filmmaker who's track record includes
The Transporter and -yikes-
Clash Of The Titans. He films the movie in typical hollywood fashion; all style no substance. There is no magic in Letterier's film and once the final twist shows up we were never fooled, we in fact just never cared in the first place.
