Now You See Me: Now You Don't review – A disposable but fitfully fun reunion

Combining legacy characters with a new trio of younger illusionists, the third film in this action-comedy series is a busily disposable – if fitfully fun – combination of reunion gig and new-generation franchise spruce-up.

Director Ruben Fleischer (Venom, Uncharted) replaces predecessors Louis Leterrier and Jon M Chu, stepping in to juggle the expected ingredients of a tangled heist, some tricksy set pieces, a couple of crowd-pleasing cameos and splashes of globe-trotting glitz. Yet as the crowded cast grapple with the script’s patchy supplies of sparkle and finesse, it can be hard to care which way the plot’s cards end up landing.

The opening piles deceit on deceit with a show seemingly involving the returning Four Horsemen, star magicians whose ranks number cocky frontman J Dallas Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), hypnotist Merritt (Woody Harrelson), escapologist Henley (Isla Fisher) and card-sharp Jack (Dave Franco), reunited after almost 10 years away.

A rug-pulling segue then introduces a fresh-faced gang of magicians, namely Bosco Leroy (Dominic Sessa), June (Ariana Greenblatt) and Charlie (Justice Smith). When Atlas infiltrates their secret hideout to reprimand them for imitating his crew, he also recruits them. Their mission, should they choose, etc? To help engineer a diamond heist and take down a crime syndicate fronted by Veronika Vanderberg (Rosamund Pike), a woman whose callous activities, we’re told, “make the world’s worst people possible".

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The film’s prologue tries to big up the Horsemen’s comeback to a degree that might seem excessive even if Elvis were resurrected. While it’s hard to share the excitement at their return after the shallow romp of 2016’s Now You See Me 2, a nifty on-screen switcheroo at least revitalises the franchise’s mild pleasures: watching charming rogues wrongfoot all-comers and fleece the rich remains the rough gist.

A clumsy reliance on exposition muffles that magic, however, and the problem is exacerbated by a script that insists on congratulating itself when it’s not flagging up its subtexts. The idea that audiences need magic in dark times is presented as if the series requires legitimising, a risky suggestion when spry fun and cleverer-than-thou misdirection should be the aims.

The cast do their best to deliver on these fronts even if the script glues their characters to type, presumably to minimise complications in an already messy plot. Eisenberg is playfully verbose, while Harrelson’s line in laconic asides bears repeating – "This liver’s not going to destroy itself," he quips, accepting a drink. Pike has fun with the hissable Veronika, her silky self-assurance, smirk and camp accent offering fun compensations for slender characterisation.

Fisher makes a welcome franchise return after sitting out the previous film, but gets little to do. The new trio show potential, notably Greenblatt during a gymnastic fight sequence in a tight space, but spoiler-y appearances from former series cast-members leave ever-decreasing room for the newcomers to register. A disappearing act is one thing, but the new trio threaten to vanish from memory whenever they’re off-screen. Meanwhile, any subplots about legacy character relationships barely get a second thought, beyond rote nods to their “weird” interpersonal history.

It's the set pieces that lift proceedings, with action sequences at a public diamond display and in a house of illusions showing flashes of pacey wit, levity and invention – though Christopher Nolan might want his rotating corridor set back.

The narrative linking them is, however, frustratingly loose even for a franchise that revels in the ridiculous. One or two twists prove inconsequential, while the script is rarely as clever as it thinks it is and hardly ever as fresh as it should be. When the final, creaky reveal recalls the first film’s climax, you hope the series manages to conjure up some new tricks before the proposed fourth outing apparates.

Now You See Me: Now You Don't is released in UK cinemas on Friday 14th November.

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