#and negative

But this is the part that those who like Now you see me, now you don't should stop reading. Especially the ones that adore the three new little addition to the Horsemen groups.

Personally, I don't like the third part as much as the first two.

Okay granted the magic was still fun and I still giggling to myself whenever those tricks come up to the screen because it was the reason I was there in the theater at 11PM on the first show day even though I just got back from a long day of work (oh wow how time flies), I wanted to have fun, I got the fun, I got back home at 2AM grinning and recommended people to go see the show because it was fun.

But a lot of the original elements of the first two were missing.

Daniel Atlas sounded off when he first appeared, I couldn't quite pinpoint on the 'why' since I didn't have time to rewatch the first two and the last time I did was in 2019 or something. I did after came back from the theater and spent the next day binging back the old movies.

Daniel Atlas sounded so normal, was the thing I realized. He did not have the jittery, the always moving, the AUTISM. There I said it. Yeah yeah times had passed and people changed and all of that but just let me mourn the autistic control-freak asshole Daniel Atlas okay.

I don't have much opinion on the other four Horsemen since they were pretty okay (Lula's appearance was fantastic prop to them they got her bloody disgusting whimsical part right on the bullseyes)

And then there is that whimsical part. I felt like there was not as much fooling around as the originals. Dylan got played (and let himself be played) like a fiddle toy in the first movie, Chase and Walter being little shits fucking around with the Horsemen in the second.

And then the third one just felt,,, too serious. Well, more serious than the other two. They felt more tense, less fooling around, yeah yeah the scene at the magic house was a thing yeah they were fooling around yeah they had fun so was I but It did not contribute to the plot or had any impact thus it did not feel that satisfaction or left that much of a impression afterward. (Before you all came to my head, Imma pointed out that Dylan getting played like a fool and Walter & Chase being little shits played a huge role for the final impact to hit)

Then, here comes my favorite part of any movies or shows, the dynamic.

I have always been a big fan of the found family trope, that was maybe one of the reasons why my 12(13?) self adore the Horsemen and their little "nothing like a family" going on. They don't have any other link with the outside world, Jack dropped dead and no one bothered to look into it, because no one was looking for him; Danny lived in an apartment by himself, doing trick to pick up ONS then shoo them away; Merritt got betrayed by his twin and it hit hard, he kept his skepticism throughout most of the first show about not wanting to work with other, not believing in whatever the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow; Henley despite being so successful, she did not tell anyone nor mention anything about her life and kept her ground staying with a man she wasn't fond of, a man she did not know that well and a (practically a child in her eyes due to how they all treated him) young pickpocket magician-wannabe she knew nothing of; Lula got a whole deal of her mom stabbed her dad in the neck (yeah Jack I agreed with you what the fuck); and Dylan surviving on 30 years of vengeance and hatred burning deep inside his being because of his dad's death.

That why the little gesture of affection between them always get me giggling and kicking my feet. They did a pretty solid job of giving us the "show don't tell" about their dynamic even if some of them got cut from the final. Or if they do tell (like with Dylan on the final of NYSM 2), it was revealed at the end, like how it had always been for the movie.

The three new additions kinda,,, lacking in that show don't tell. I felt like it was a bit force, that they kept repeating the same thing about how much they are importance for each other and how much of a family they are even if they aren't connected by blood.

Or maybe I'm just very bias and autistic and I did not like when things aren't what they were and my favorite little whimsical communists magical robin hoods got nerfed down so the new ones could shine shush.

There's also the final too. It.... didn't feel satisfied when the curtain fall and the truth was revealed. I think there were a lot of factors contributing to that.

Firstly the villain/antagonist. She was so normal, just your usual everyday smart, rich, ruthless villain. They didn't make her extremely smart like Walter and Chase and fooled around with that, or smug and arrogant like Thaddeus who think they knew they will always one steps ahead (which make the final very satisfied at how they all got taken down) or a complete fool like Dylan who apparently was not much of a fool but the real mastermind behind pulling the strings (god the twist was still insane even on the rewatch)

She also missed that whimsical (I am overusing it at this point but it was the whole point make NYSM as much fun as it were) She was serious, but to a normal amount, not like Dylan's out of the roof rage; She was sarcastic and also dance around, but did not fuck around like Walter and Chase since she did not have that luxury to.

The villain was just your every-show-villain and did not leave that much of an impression.

Oh almost forgot, there were more than two sides in the old two movies. The Horsemen >< The riches (Tressler), The Horsemen >< Thaddeus, The Horsemen >< Dylan and the FBI, and then the grand final being Dylan was the mastermind pulling the strings all along; Walter & Chase >< The Horsemen, Thaddeus >< Dylan (Horsemen), The FBI >< The Horsemen, and the final reveal being Thaddeus being the Eyes's leader and wanting to teach Dylan a lesson, a push, something for Dylan to understand the importance of the Horsemen to him. There were a lot of sides but they were all manageable and easy to follow.

And the third one were just the Horsemen >< Veronika (I HAD TO GOOGLE HER NAME GOD DAMN) and the mastermind being Charlie as Veronika's supposedly dead brother. The lack of sides and characters made it honestly too easy to guess who would be the one behind the whole scene.

I also think they didn't follow through with the misdirection (NYSM kept pointing toward Alma being the mastermind while Thadeus was still posed as an arrogant asshole in NYSM 2) but lean more toward the hinting and foreshadowing, which is understandable, but it lost the magician theme on there and turning it into a normal movie instead.

Magician worked with perception, they give you the information, a lot of informations for your sensation to pick up and for your brain to fill in the gap, a misdirection, a little trick to keep your brain on thinking you got them, you are following them, and you know exactly what they are doing. But you are not, they are letting you follow what they want you to follow, thinking what they want you to think and only knowing what they want you to know.

It felt more like a movie and less of a magic show in Now you see me, now you don't. It lacked the twist and the misdirection and the whimsical of a magic show. And I think that was they did such a good job on the first two parts. Always leaving you guessing yourself. I was rewatching NYSM 1 and 2 with my friend and neither of us could guess who's the one behind it all until right before the final.