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Films for Thoughts on Thursday: Now You See Me


This is a weekly meme that I am hosting here at Reviews from a Bookworm. I own over 500 books, I'mn a book blogger so it's kind of obvious that I love books. But the one thing I own more of than books is DVDs, I love movies, TV shows, musicals. So I think it's time to include a weekly movie review on the blog. To take part all you have to do is share a movie review once a week, link back to Reviews from a Bookworm and add your link to the linky tool.


This weeks movie review will be for:


Now You See Me

This was my second time watching this film and I really wanted to review it for the blog. Amanda at Book Badger had mentioned it and asked if I was planning to review it. So when I saw it on DVD for cheap it seemed like the best time to pick it up. I think it's a really interesting movie and I like it for a lot of reasons. I do have a few issues with the film, but for the most part I find it very entertaining and enjoy the story.

The story revolves around four street magicians who are brought together one day by an unknown benefactor who gifts to them blueprints for different, incredible magic tricks. The magicians are J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg) who specialises in illusions and street magic (card tricks and the such), Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson) who's a hypnotist, Henley Reeves (Isla Fischer) who was a magicians assistant and now works as an escapist, and Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) who I found really cool as he can mimic voices, pick locks, pickpocket, do sleight of hand magic tricks and a ton of other stuff.

The start of the film introduces you to the individual characters as we see them brought together. It then skips ahead a year and we find that they are performing together as a group act, known as The Four Horseman. They're performing a show in Vegas when they seemingly transport a member of the audience to his bank in France and have him steal a large sum of money from the bank vault and transport it back to the audience in Vegas. It sounds unbelievable but then it becomes apparent that the money has in fact gone missing from the French bank and the calling card they gave the audience member is found on the floor of the French bank vault. This is when the FBI gets involved and the movie becomes a game of cat & mouse between the magicians and the FBI. The tricks escalate and the chase gets more intense, coming to a big finale with a twist at the end. 

I pretty much loved the main storyline and the magic tricks were impressive. That's easy to do because it's a movie so they can get away with doing a lot using CGI. So quite a few of the tricks seem completely unbelievable and only possible because this is a movie. But, some of them do actually get explanations which make sense and are really great. It's those big reveals that you are waiting for, you want to know how the trick is done. Isn't it the same with all magic tricks? It's the question everyone asks, how is it done. So it is nice when we get an explanation for some of the big tricks and they actually make sense, as far as the movie is concerned. But then other tricks, the floating in a bubble, the jumping off a building and turning into money isn't ever explained. That gets a little frustrating at times. 

I really liked the characters of the magicians. They all had their own personalities and I enjoyed the jokes and banter between them all. I'd seen Dave Franco in interviews for the movie and found him to be absolutely hilarious so was looking forward to seeing him in the film. But, sadly, because he is the lesser known of the four actors we really don't get to see too much of him. Woody Harrelson is really hilarious in this film though, he is in most things, and I really loved his character. His character completely winds up Eisenberg's character Daniel and it's a lot of fun to watch. They have so much good back and forth between them and they're work so well together; it makes me want to go watch Zombieland! 

You won't believe him when he's angry!
This film sees Mark Ruffalo take on the role of the FBI agent in charge of the investigation. I really love Mark Ruffalo but he just wasn't very believable as the FBI guy. He does this weird serious face all the time and it just doesn't work on him; he plays the Hulk for gods sake so you'd think he could do angry well. But I just didn't find him very believable at all. 

I think the pacing of the movie is perfect though, it never stalls or slows down. It's constantly full of action and scenes that keep you invested and interested. You want to get to the end and what you know is going to be some kind of big reveal. But, in my opinion, the main plot twist just left me with a lot of unanswered questions and I didn't really get it. I didn't really get what the whole point of it all was. I feel like they kind of leave it open so there is a chance at a sequel, but a movie like this doesn't really require a sequel. In all honesty, if there was a sequel, I definitely would watch it so I could see more of these characters.


6/10 Butterflies

This has some brilliant characters that I adore. The story moves along really quickly and it doesn't slow down, your never bored whilst watching it. The tricks that are explained make sense and I enjoyed finding out how the magicians did them. But, I hated all the tricks that were clearly just CGI and never explained to us. The end twist just didn't really work for me, I didn't get the whole point of it if I am completely honest. Overall, it's a great film but not an amazing piece of cinema. 






I have been meaning to take part in both of the following memes for a while now, so its nice to finally be able to get to them. I will be taking part in Reading is Fun Again's Thoughtful Thursday and Okay, Let's Read's  Thursday Thoughts, picking between them or doing both topics each week.


Protagonists

Do you prefer a male or female protagonist? Does the authors gender matter?

In all honesty, I think I am happy with either male or female perspectives. I read a lot of young adult and feel like most of the narrators are female at the minute. It would be quite nice to get more guy protagonists. I am quite a fan of dual narratives, especially in love interests because I love being able to get inside both characters heads. It's one of the endless reasons that I adore the Under the Never Sky series, it was really brilliant to get both Aria and Perry's POV and I think it worked really well. The gender of the author does not bother me, I just like a good book so I don't care whether it's written by a man or a woman. I feel like a maybe a woman author can't completely understand or show how a guy would feel and vice versa with a male author and female character. But, I have never noticed that and I feel like a good author can get inside the mind of any character and make it seem real. 


EReaders

Do you use an eReader? Do you prefer eReaders or physical books? Do you think it is wise to invest in an eReader? If you could only read physical or ebooks for the rest of your life which would you choose and why?

Brilliant questions. I do have an eReader and I find it really useful, but I only really use it for eARCs. I don't buy many ebooks myself if I am honest. I prefer physical books, always have and always will. I love having the physical book on my bookshelf, I love being able to look at the cover. I love the feel of physical books, the weight of them and actually being able to see how far through the book I am. A percentage is good but I definitely prefer being able to see it in the pages that are remaining. Ereaders are a good investment for some, they're perfect for when you are going on holiday and don't want to pack twenty books. But, I will always prefer my physical books. If I love an eARC I got then I will always buy myself the physical book.
If I could only read one or the other, the answer is easy, I'd pick physical books in a heartbeat. I think if we all just started reading ebooks then what would happen to book stores and libraries. I think it's really important for people to support libraries and bookstores and still purchase physical books. I know that if I have to pick between an ebook or a phsyical book then I will be picking the physical book. 


What about you guys, do you prefer male of female protags? Do you think the gender of the author really matters? And ebooks or physical books? 




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20 comments:

  1. It was SO freakishly weird seeing Hulk not being...hulk. I mean, dude, get angry. That's your secret, right? I spent most of the movie laughing at him...*ahem* But I DID love the movie, there is just no way in this world that I understand the ending. It was all so real until they jumped on the carosel and goodness knows what happened. WEIRD. I was impressed though, that Hulk wasn't just a stereotyped FBI idiot. But he was still hulk.

    For the POVs, I think I like a mixture! I love experiencing it from both sides...and I do know that some authors kind of suck when they try to go from the opposite gender's perspective...but a LOT of authors rock it. Like John Green writing Hazel and Erin Lange writing Dead Ends...aaaand Dan Wells tackling Kira in Partials. So I'm happy with whatever the author decides to narrate from, just so long as they do it awesomely. ;)

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    1. HAHA!!! YAY! I am really happy that I wasn't the only one laughing at him, I felt a lil bad. I didn't really get the ending either, it just went a bit bizarre and I was really confused. I feel like it's supposed to be an opening for a sequel, but I don't get it.

      A lot of authors do really rock it, but I have seen some who just really struggle. It depends on the author and how good.

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  2. Oooo, when I saw you'd reviewed Now You See Me I got mega happy! I can't believe you've not seen Zombieland though, I mean, I have and I don't like Zombies, Emma Stones in it, Jesse and Woody and they all banter so well, you'll love it, definitely makes me want to review it now though! :D I'm so happy you enjoyed this though, you've still got me excited to watch it even though you didn't love it, and that's great, thank you for reviewing it! :)
    When it comes to the questions, I prefer female protagonists because I can relate better, but I do think the gender of an author matters. You'll most commonly find that female authors create female protagonists while male authors produce both and I think that's strange personally. When it comes to E-readers, I don't have one, but I do use Adobe Reader and Kindle on my laptop, so does that count? When it comes down to it, I'd probably prefer to read physical copies rather than digitals, just because looking at screens too long hurts my eyes and gives me headaches, no matter the size, and I also love the feel of turning the pages, I'm a 'ald girl at heart and probably always will be :)

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    1. I LOVE ZOMBIELAND! I just meant that seeing them two together makes you really want to go watch Zombieland to get more of them, they're hilarious together. I did really enjoy the film, it's really good but I just didn't love it. The ends not the greatest and that lowered it from a 7 to a 6 for me.

      Me too, I love the feel of turning pages and just having a book in my hand. And, yes, those screens give me a headache too!

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  3. Haven't heard of this movie but I'm kind of obsessed with magic so I need to check it out!
    Jen @ YA Romantics

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    1. It's a pretty great movie as far as the magic aspect goes! :)

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  4. The gender of authors matter to me in that I try to read roughly an equal number of female and male ones each year. Other than that, I couldn't care less.

    I admit to having a weakness for epic fantasy with female protagonists though - there's really not enough of them!!

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    1. There definitely isn't enough of them in epic fantasy, but you do find some incredible ones. I don't really pay attention to the gender of the author, it's never really bothered me too much as long as I end up loving the book, obviously.

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  5. I love your review of Now You See Me, and I felt pretty much the same about it. I loved the movie, the characters and the magic aspect of it, but that ending left me a little cold. The twist was good, but that specific end-bit was just, "what?!". As for male/female protagonists, I don't have a preference but I enjoy both for different reasons, female because I can often relate, and male because I really enjoy getting an in-sight into that POV. I have an eReader that I haven't used a lot at all, and I read eGalleys and library loans on my tablet. I have a terrible problem where I snap up cheap eBooks on offers and deals, the 59/99p type and I've never gotten around to any of them yet, but I keep adding to them!! I'll always prefer physical copies though, no matter what! The Thursday discussion posts are great, I'd love to find the time to fit them in! R x

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    1. I KNOW! I didn't mind the twist but it's what came after that left me pretty confused. I feel like they purposefully leave it open in the hopes that they can do a sequel, but I don't see the need. I think they should have just done a proper ending to this one and I would have been really satisfied.

      I do the exact same thing, I browse the Amazon deals and buy a bunch of them and yet I haven't got to any of them yet either, it's really bad. I will always prefer physical books too :)

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  6. I had forgotten all about this film, but I remember really wanting to see it at the time, thanks for the reminder!

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  7. I love this movie! But then, I love anything to do with magic and Mark Ruffalo ;)

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    1. Haha! I love me some Mark Ruffalo too. I think it's my deep love of 13 Going on 30 that did it to me ;)

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  8. I have the same thoughts about this film! I loved the pacing of the story and getting to hear the explanations how certain magic tricks happened. It also bothered me when some goes unexplained. I love Dave Franco's character in this one. And I think there's going to be a sequel?? Will you be watching that if ever it does happen?

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    1. I only just heard about the sequel and I am intrigued. Yes, I think I would watch it just to see if there is more clarification about things that didn't make perfect sense in the movie.

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  9. I loved the movie! I didn't really like how the cards al fit together themselves at the end, because it made it seem like the magic really was real? I can understand what you mean as well, about wanting to know how the did the other tricks as well because, well, it's always nice to have a good explanation. The plot twist at the end... I predicted it xD Not a predictable film though, I just kind of knew... I wonder what the next one will be about?

    http://olivia-savannah.blogspot.nl/2014/05/a-thousand-splendid-suns-book-review.html

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    1. I am really intrigued about what the sequel is about. Yeah, the card thing was strange but part of me thought magnetised or something. I don't know, the end was the most confusing part of the film for me. Will see a sequel if and when it comes out though :)

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  10. I finally watched this! I really enjoyed it but my frustrations were the same as yours. And the plot twist at the end was really poor. I really wish it had been better because the rest of the movie was sooo excellent.

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    1. It really was, I just felt like the ending let me down because it was such a bad plot twist. Or just really poorly done. I'm curious about the sequel that's in the works though.

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