Genre: Crime/Mystery/Action
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Morgan Freeman, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Isla Fisher, Melanie Laurent, Michael Caine
Magic is the art of manipulation of sight and nothing else. It is due to this very art of manipulation, 4 magicians are brought together to become the ultimate magic troupe in history. J. Daniel Atlas aka The Lovers (Eisenberg), Merritt McKinley aka The Hermit (Harrelson), Henley Reeves aka The High Priestess (Fisher) and Jack Wilder aka Death (Fisher) come together to form the Four Horsemen. The four travel throughout the country, thrilling audiences when suddenly during a show in Las Vegas they announce that they are going to rob a bank standing right there on stage. The troupe's antics and success in pulling off the stunt shakes the police force but are unable to pin anything against the Four Horseman on the basis of lack of logical proof. Dylan Rhodes (Ruffalo) is assigned the task to crack the case and assisted by Alma Dray (Laurent) from Interpol but no matter what Dylan does, the horseman are always 2 steps ahead of him. The movie is an example of when the trailer is far better than the actual movie in itself. The way magic looks marvellous at first sight but when you dig deeper you realise things are not all that great, this movie too follows a similar path. It is visually enticing and can keep you glued but the story itself is extremely shaky and is built upon co-incidents, assumptions, unrealistic occurrences and unresolved mysteries. The flaws in the story are pretty much endless and don't be surprised if you get up in the end scratching your head. The idea of a heist movie with magicians is definitely unique, but the movie lacked the strong story to support this thought.
Thumbs up: Visually delighting
Thumbs down: Flawed story with too many gaping loopholes
Rating: 6.6/10
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