Whenever there is a further sequel to an established franchise, I try to go back and watch the ones that came before it.  I suppose that is not a major revelation, more of reiteration of my logic.  What is somewhat surprising is that I had yet to review Now You See Me (2013).  On the embarrassing side is my reason for this context.  You see, recently I noticed that Now You See Me: Now You Don’t is premiering this year.  I assumed that it was the second instead of a third in a trilogy.  This Catholic should know better than to doubt the existence of threes.  Anyway, it means there is one other movie for me to look at before going to see the latest.  Until I get to those, enjoy this look at Now You See Me.

Actually, one of the first things Now You See Me tells us is to not look too closely at what you are seeing.  That is what our four main magicians ask of us, all of them street performers when we meet them.  First is J. Daniel “Danny” Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), an expert at sleight of hand, who does a card trick using the John Hancock building; next is a mentalist from New Orleans named Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), who identifies a cuckolding husband with his powers of deduction; then there is the stunt specialist Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher), who tricks an audience into thinking she had been eaten by piranhas; and finally we are introduced to the youngest of them all, New York City pickpocket Jack Wilder (Dave Franco).  During each of these establishing scenes, there is a mysterious hooded figure watching all their performances.  After each one, they find a tarot card-like object with an address in the Big Apple at which they all meet.  There is some familiarity between them, not all of it friendly, but they put aside their differences to enter a random apartment where they find a set-up that will identify them as the “Four Horsemen.”  My Catholic senses were piqued by this designation, but there is nothing Biblical about them.  A year goes by and we next find them performing as a team in Las Vegas.  In front of a large studio audience, they announce that they are going to rob a bank.  Picking a man out of the crowd, who happens to be from Paris, they get the name of his financial institution and tell him that they are going to teleport him to its vault.  They put him into a machine that makes him disappear, and next they vacuum millions of Euros up and make it fall into the eager hands of the people in their seats.  Naturally, such a ruse would attract law enforcement’s attention.  The person who is called upon to lead the investigation is Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo), who feels he has bigger cases to pursue than one dealing with so-called magicians.  The fact that a representative of the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), Alma Dray (Mélanie Laurent), has been sent to assist does not help his mood.  Finally, the Four Horsemen are no help, giving evasive answers and using their skills to mess with the officers.  Ultimately, they are released because the money that had gone missing was in France, and they never left the country on the day of the crime.  At this point, we are introduced to a couple other players in this drama.  The first is Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman, a former magician turned debunker after a fellow performer, Lionel Shrike (Elias Koteas), died during an escape stunt.  Thaddeus is approached by the FBI because he was in the auditorium during the heist.  It is also because of his reputation, which is merited, being able to explain to the authorities how the crime could have happened.  While they are discussing this, he also gives the location of the Four Horsemen’s next trick.  It is in New Orleans, and they are on their way there on the private jet belonging to their benefactor, insurance agent mogul Arthur Tressler (Michael Caine).  He proves the lynchpin of their next gimmick.  After dazzling with a series of simple ruses, the Four Horsemen call their sponsor onto the stage.  Handing him a check with his net worth on it, he watches as they make that number go down and enter the bank accounts of everyone in the audience.  As this happens, they reveal that the three participants they singled out had all been denied by Arthur’s company for insurance claims following Hurricane Katrina.  This time, though, Alma and Agent Rhodes are watching and give chase as they flee the theater.  Once more they get away, this time heading to New York City.  Further, it is discovered that Agent Rhodes’ phone had been tapped by the Four Horsemen.  This discovery proves to be the FBI’s first break, and it leads them to the apartment where the Four Horsemen first met.  They have to make a hasty exit, leaving Jack behind to deal with the last-minute document destruction.  A close pursuit in cars ensues, ending with Jack flipping his car.  Agent Rhodes is able to retrieve one of the pieces of paper from the vehicle before it explodes, and it gives the authorities the next target.  It is a safe belonging to Elkhorn Security, another company Arthur owns.  Again, the item is stolen right before their eyes, leading to the Four Horsemen’s final appearance at a warehouse in the Five Points neighborhood.  Under a shower of cash, they disappear into the night.  However, Alma and Agent Rhodes discover that it has the faces of the Four Horsemen on the bills.  The real haul of cash is hidden in Thaddeus’ car, which is promptly found by the police. Now behind bars, Thaddeus is visited by Agent Rhodes.  During their discussion it becomes apparent that Agent Rhodes is Lionel’s son.  The deceased magician had been ridiculed by Thaddeus, and the safe he died in was made by Elkhorn.  Thus, everything we had been seeing had been an elaborate set-up to get revenge on the two men Dylan blames for the death of his father.

Actually, there are a couple more scenes in Now You See Me after Dylan confronts Thaddeus.  I switched to his given name because I guess after you make such a speech, you are probably not long for law enforcement.  This seems to be the case because Dylan then meets the Four Horsemen in Central Park to induct them into the Eye of Horus, a fictional, Ancient Egyptian group of magicians that over the centuries have used sleight of hand to address societal wrongs.  Finally, Dylan travels to Paris to meet Alma, concluding a romance subplot that appears unnecessary to the overall plot.  I have no idea if the other movies are like this, but with all this distraction going on, it is hard to see who are the main characters.  Everything seems underdeveloped.  Still, this notion of using magical performances to go after bad people is an interesting one from a Catholic perspective.  What I appreciated on that note is the fact that none of this is meant to be “real” magic.  There are no incantations or spells.  This is a relief and it allowed me to enjoy the movie to a greater degree.  It may be hypocritical to say so when I am a fan of Harry Potter.  However, there the protagonists use their gifts (for lack of a better word) to fight evil, whereas Now You See Me is about revenge.  It stinks that Dylan lost his father.  That does not make getting even with someone right, especially plotting it out over decades.  That is not the Christian answer to a personal slight, regardless of the degree.  Indeed, one could label the theatrics as a distraction from this truth.  As justified as it might look to right an age-old wrong, God looks kindlier on those that can forgive.

At the same time, Now You See Me can be forgiven for some of its flaws.  Like the confusing order in which these films have been released, there are a few plot holes.  Yet, it has a solid cast and some fun effects and tricks.  It is not the greatest movie, but passable.