Now You See Me

Magicians pulling off a heist would be an intriguing concept for a movie. Sadly though in the hands of Louis Leterrier it has become ordinary. I am a fan of heist movies and love to guess at the various twists and turns the story might take. It took me a while to work out what it was about this film that I did not like and I think it was the film's perspective. The film is told from the perspective of Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo), the detective looking for the magicians. For me that was the wrong way to tell the story as it takes away from the more interesting characters in the film which are the four magicians pulling off the heist. The audience should be getting to know these characters and why they are doing what they are doing. In some ways I know that it might give away the films final reveal but I'm sure there are ways to work around it. The final reveal is very good but the magicians reason for being involved in the heist is quite lame and a big let down. Perhaps if we knew the characters better and their motivation we would care more about their reasons.
Jesse Eisenberg is very good as the leader of the magicians. But as mentioned above we do not get to know his character all that well so his role is mostly doing magic on stage. The same can be said of his team played by Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher and Dave Franco. Mark Ruffalo is his usual excellent self as he gets the most to do. Melanie Laurent does a decent job in the side-kick role. Morgan Freeman seems to be having the most fun in his role as the magician debunker. Michael Caine is OK but his is another character that lacks motivation.
There was so much potential here to have a great fun heist film. But sadly the director and writers have let us down.