By Grady Andersen, Newswire Intern

“Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” has reinvigorated a franchise with new characters and practical magic. 

Released nearly a decade after the second film premiered in theaters, “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” tells the story of three young magicians who admire and aspire to be like the Four Horsemen, with an “eat the rich” mentality. It starts with them merely scamming a crypto bro, but rapidly grows into a multinational plot involving Nazis, diamonds and money laundering. 

It still retains the charm of past “Now You See Me” movies, with all of the original characters returning, including Isla Fisher. While the characters played by Morgan Freeman and Mark Ruffalo have much less screen time, they still have close to the same impact as in previous movies.

The three new magicians help reinvigorate the movie in what would have originally felt like a tired cash grab. All three new actors, Justice Smith in particular, fit into their role of the aspiring but somewhat naive magicians who want to be the new Horsemen. The magicians are able to grab the audience’s attention in the first act and carry it for the rest of the movie. 

The main villain, Veronica Vanderburg, played by Rosamund Pike, is a diamond mine magnate. Pike is able to give one of the best antagonist performances of the franchise with her ability to portray emotions.

One of the big differences is the change in the reliance on CGI. The first two movies seemed to heavily rely on CGI and the green screen for tricks and effects. While interesting to see, it is hard to follow at certain points. 

“Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” is able to break away, relying mostly on practical effects, which do not elevate the tricks, but make them more entertaining to watch. The entire second act takes place in a chateau in France – full of magic props and rooms, all of which are practical, adding to the overall quality of the movie.

Not only are the performances and effects some of the best seen from this trilogy, so too is the humor. The ability for it to transfer from a reliance on punchline humor in the first half to callback and dry style refreshes the movie in the second half. The number of callbacks is enough to make a follower of the franchise laugh, but not enough for newcomers to be confused. 

A personal favorite callback is the introduction of Lula, played by Izzy May. She gets her arm “cut” and pours out an extreme amount of blood to provide a distraction, referencing one of her first scenes in the second movie.

While the movie has a lot of highlights, there are some issues with it. The third act, while set up to be rushed, can be somewhat hard to follow. Plus, some of the scenes, like the F1 chase scene, really do not have much of a reason to drag on for so long.   

Although the finale has a huge payoff, it feels like it could have been structured a little bit better. Not only that, the addition of Ruffalo at the end feels useless; it is almost like they had to squeeze in a teaser for the next movie and only had a day to come up with the idea and film it.

Overall, the movie is an eight out of 10. Great performances and one of the best plots “Now You See Me” has had to date makes it a great watch, but the ending is somewhat of a letdown.