![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Sep. 11th, 2013 11:34 amNow You See Me is a complicated film. I don't know if I would recommend it. However, it's not because I believe the film is bad. I think it's brilliant, but lazy.
Unlike The Presitge, which is about a conflict with two magicians with a Sci-Fi twist, this ends up being a story about Revenge that is drapped with The Caper trappings, with Four Magicians being the focus.
The reason it's horrible as a Mystery, is that the clue to who the person who organized the capers was really, really bad, obscure, and completely counter intuitive. As such, the whole audience is deceived into believe it's a caper film till about two thirds of the way through the film, if they were paying attention.
So, instead, it tries to play the ending off as a Thriller, but by the time you get to the ending, you don't care. The question of "Why" gets answered, but because we don't know *who* is out to get revenge, we don't care that they do. When the big secret is revealed at the end, we are like "What?' and then... well... we don't see the matchup, really.
The whole film gets so caught up in the Magician Distraction trope, that it messes itself up on the payoff because of that.
...
Now if you know me, I really like Magican Stories, because they remind me of my Grandfather, and as a Magician Film, this one stinks. The over reliance of CGI to create tricks that are to wow the audience does not impress me. Some zombie wires over a girl so she can be lifted over an audience in a CGI balloon does not impress me. Using the CGI to create editing tricks for a materialization comes off as cheap and unprofessional. Was there some real tricks? Yes. The close up artist they got at least know their stuff, and the opening Glass Box scene was really good and showy, and I can see someone really doing the trick. I won't even judge it that much.
However, this show never, EVER was about the magic, and that was the biggest disappointment of them all. You see some standard routines, some CGI trickery, and that's it. The Prestige, even with the Sci Fi element added in, was a lot more satisfying.
....
Honestly, this is a middle of the roader, and probably worth nothing more then a rental. It's honest fun, the story itself isn't bad, but you don't realize what story it is till about halfway through the film, and it's prologue could have been much stronger.
Unlike The Presitge, which is about a conflict with two magicians with a Sci-Fi twist, this ends up being a story about Revenge that is drapped with The Caper trappings, with Four Magicians being the focus.
The reason it's horrible as a Mystery, is that the clue to who the person who organized the capers was really, really bad, obscure, and completely counter intuitive. As such, the whole audience is deceived into believe it's a caper film till about two thirds of the way through the film, if they were paying attention.
So, instead, it tries to play the ending off as a Thriller, but by the time you get to the ending, you don't care. The question of "Why" gets answered, but because we don't know *who* is out to get revenge, we don't care that they do. When the big secret is revealed at the end, we are like "What?' and then... well... we don't see the matchup, really.
The whole film gets so caught up in the Magician Distraction trope, that it messes itself up on the payoff because of that.
...
Now if you know me, I really like Magican Stories, because they remind me of my Grandfather, and as a Magician Film, this one stinks. The over reliance of CGI to create tricks that are to wow the audience does not impress me. Some zombie wires over a girl so she can be lifted over an audience in a CGI balloon does not impress me. Using the CGI to create editing tricks for a materialization comes off as cheap and unprofessional. Was there some real tricks? Yes. The close up artist they got at least know their stuff, and the opening Glass Box scene was really good and showy, and I can see someone really doing the trick. I won't even judge it that much.
However, this show never, EVER was about the magic, and that was the biggest disappointment of them all. You see some standard routines, some CGI trickery, and that's it. The Prestige, even with the Sci Fi element added in, was a lot more satisfying.
....
Honestly, this is a middle of the roader, and probably worth nothing more then a rental. It's honest fun, the story itself isn't bad, but you don't realize what story it is till about halfway through the film, and it's prologue could have been much stronger.
