Now You See Me: Now You Don’t (2025) Review

https://youtu.be/-E3lMRx7HRQ?is=K2DBPdVycNuWztWK

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

You know what? Sometimes, magic can be nice to share when in the right hands.


PLOT


Now You See Me: Now You Don’t is the third film in the magician franchise taking place a decade after the events of the second film. The Horseman of the Eye have parted ways since then until foreman J Daniel Atlas meets three younger illusionists using deepfake holograms of him and his friends to drain a cryptocurrency exchange owner at a local show. The trio includes pickpocket/lock picker June Rouclere, impressionist Bosch Leroy and their friend Charlie who’s a magic history enthusiast in comparison. Atlas contacts the three because the Eye gave him a tarot card to recruit them to steal a Heart Diamond from Veronika Vanderberg, second generation head of a South American diamond company where she continues providing money laundering services like her father did. Days before presenting the diamond does she get an anonymous call from someone who threatens to expose all her crimes in exchange for the diamond. Atlas and his recruits are able to take the diamond as planned in a private party at Antwerp and they’re all able to escape with the assist of the other Horsemen: sleight of hand Jack Wilder, escapologist Henley Reeves & hypnotist Merritt McKinney. They all show up as they too were given a tarot card by the Eye and they have since disbanded after one heist got their leader Dylan Shrike (Mark Ruffalo) incarcerated in a Russian prison. All the tarot cards guide them to a chateau in France where they reunite with the Eye’s grandmaster Thaddeus Bradley. As Charlie & Bosco are able to find evidence against Veronika, she sends cop on her payroll after them, resulting in Bradley to be fatally shot while everyone else flees. When splitting up, it results in Jack, June & Merritt getting captured. When the latter gets interrogated by Veronika, he deduces with his mentalist skill that her father had an affair with a housekeeper and when her mother killed herself in heartbreak, she retaliated by getting the lover killed via cutting the brakes of her car. Shortly after this revelation, Henley’s substitute horseman, master of disguise Lula May, returns to help Jack & June escape but doesn’t save Merritt in time. This leads to Veronika and all Horsemen agree to trade him for the diamond at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, where there’s another party for her Formula One team. As part of a big distraction, Bosco steals the F1 car that results in a police chase and June is able to scramble communications. The rest of the Horsemen however would fall into Veronika’s trap by leaving them in a glass tank to be filled with sand. Thankfully, they escape together when pulling water pipe and using Henley’s wedding ring to break the glass. When Veronika reaches one of her vaults to rendezvous with her caller, it turns out it was her long lost brother Charlie who survived the crash that killed his mom. When she tearfully apologizes, she gives him the diamond only to shoot him down for it. Thankfully, Charlie reveals she was given blanks by Bosco in disguise as her security. When unveiling her at a Horseman stage, he is able to explain he posed at the Eye to get the Horsemen’s help in his revenge scheme and he transported his evil sister to the stage under the illusion of a sandstorm. With Veronika being arrested for attempted murder, Charlie now vows to give back to the people of South America and assure his sister’s clients will get brought to justice as well. Some time after this, Jack & Lula have rekindled their relationship and the rest of the Horsemen visit the young recruits again at their hideout. Upon their arrival, the film ends with a package dropped off, containing a hologram message left by Dylan who admits to have staged his incarceration to official induct Charlie, June & Bosco into the Eye.


THOUGHTS


I definitely don’t want to come off like a bandwagon here, but rewatching the first two in preparation for this three-quel and I did get an appropriate nostalgic bug bite. Are these movies straight up amazing compared to bigger blockbusters? Not really, but they never exactly aim to be there except focus on being a completely different experience each time and the trend continues here. When it came to the chateau scene, everything about it was peaking with George Richmond’s expansive cinematography, Stacey Schroeder’s precise editing and Brian Tyler’s excellent score. Personally, I have a soft spot for this entry the way I have with the past because this time, director Ruben Fleischer is able to remind viewers the gift of teamwork that can carry on for generations for better purposes. If you refuse collaboration and let one’s ego be in the way, you’re only holding yourself back in where you want to be. This is the case when seeing old characters meet the new that somewhat reflect their past selves in a revenge scheme I would’ve not expected to pull off until seeing it firsthand. For a split second, I was actually assuming Bosco would be Veronika’s long lost brother due to Dominic Sessa having the loud snarky-like attitude that is opposite to the quite ferocity Rosamund Pike provides as Veronika, only to be given a big swerve that it was Charlie all along. This twist works for me because whodunnits do teach to prepare for the unexpected and Justice Smith makes it believable as he spends the whole time portraying him as the modest one yet still an epic master manipulator in terms of revenge that tops how Dylan got even with Bradley. Seeing how ahead he was that no one expected and not only Bosco, but also June being just as loyal as the latter apart from Ariana Greenblatt making her sharp enough in her skills, it makes sense why Dylan and the Eye would want to recruit them all. On top of that, it became a much needed exercise for the Horsemen to get their mojo back and work with those who share the same confidence in their shared ability. The guys were definitely most conflicted throughout and luckily, reuniting was the absolute to remind them who they are. While still having a dash of arrogant confidence, Jesse Eisenberg showed Atlas to be one show adaptability when trusting Charlie’s group and not rejecting the Horsemen after spending so long burying himself with work. Woody Harrelson definitely showed a different flare of Merritt who despite maintaining common charm to maintain positivity within the big group, he did admit to feeling depressed when thought to have lost Dylan. Thankfully, this reunion broke him out of that bad feeling. Surprisingly, Dave Franco showed Jack to be the most bottled up as he previously compromised to magic shows on cruise ships/corporate ways. Once he saw the talent June brought to the table the way Atlas did with Bosco, his confidence immediately returned. I was totally onboard with Lizzy Caplan returning as Lula and remaining most passionate compared to Jack, hence breaking up before rekindling, but I was more glad to see Isla Fisher returning as grounded yet driven Henley who as we all know missed the second one due to being pregnant at the time. The fact both ladies knew each other and are close friends was just so sweet to hear because there’s no need to be competitive when they’re part of the same cause. Last but not least, I don’t want to straight up say Bradley’s scene was pointless since his death could’ve been avoided, yet Morgan Freeman still makes it believable as the secondary mentor who is able to remind the protagonists how much they needed each other and that’s enough to leave me impressed. His words definitely were effective after dying because Charlie still chose to give back as planned after extracting his revenge. If his head is still in the clear, then Dylan and the Eye got nothing to worry about with him and his generation of illusionists should we see them again. This movie is just as fun as the rest, but even fun stuff like this have some questionable moments to look back on, all of which bothered me more than Dylan in the end saying he didn’t lie to the protagonists only for him to explain what a lie is as he did it. Like from the top, the opening can appear a bit problematic because we don’t know what Charlie and his friends would’ve done if their target Brett (Andrew Santino), the cryptocurrency guy, wasn’t even there or he could’ve left after June teased him by explaining what a mark is. And has anyone ever questioned the disguises left at the floor, especially when they take the diamond for the first time? This is the only time this happens in the franchise thus far considering the Horsemen are far from sloppy, so I’m surprised this didn’t come back to bite them by the end of it. Atlas was very lucky Jack saved him from getting shot, but the group is more than lucky once since nobody saw the diamond swap happen in front of the party and Veronika even allowed Atlas to have a chance at taking it thinking she’d be prepared to protect it. Considering the blackmail was recent at that point, she should’ve not even dared and just kicked Atlas out, which likely would’ve ruined the others’ escape. She also should’ve given photo identification or descriptions of the Horsemen to the authorities to prepare for them when the Abu Dhabi exchange goes down. That could’ve prevented Bosco’s distraction to happen. Similarly, the cops were way too lenient to let a disguised Lula keep her alcohol upon entry when that ends up becoming part of the escape plan. All of this negligence on the antagonist’s end is far more unbelievable than the fact Bosco can fight three cops at once after freeing himself from incarceration. I’m not even gonna straight up blame Charlie for Bradley’s death, but I don’t really think he needed him to prepare the chateau just for the Horsemen to get on the same page. He already got them together with the tarot cards, so I don’t think he needed to go further by bringing in someone who didn’t need to be involved in the first place. His necessary involvement is more confusing than believing magicians were used to change the tides in past wars just to prove how old The Eye is. Just because real life illusionist Jasper Maskelyne did in fact crafted the Magic Gang in WWII as exposited by Bradley, does not mean magicians were helpful in every war. Ignore these things however, then you can still say Now You See Me: Now You Don’t is another solid crime adventure for continuing to let loose on as much creativity as possible. If you dug the past two, then it’s a not brainer this’ll also be up your alley.