Lisa Johnson Mandell’s Now You See Me 3 review says this third chapter in the franchise has run out of magic thanks to magic-free CGI.

By the time a franchise reaches its third outing, you’d hope a decade of experience might refine its craft. Unfortunately, Now You See Me 3 is an all-too common threequel that manages to forget not only what worked in its predecessors but also fails to use technological updates to its advantage.

Before getting into the latest misfire, it’s worth revisiting how the series began. The original Now You See Me arrived in 2013, built on a slick, breezy premise: a team of magicians performing impossible heists in plain sight. Powered by an all-star cast—Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco, and Mark Ruffalo—it became a surprise summer hit, earning around $351 million worldwide. It wasn’t exactly subtle, but it was fun, fast, and knowingly ridiculous in a way that audiences embraced.

The 2016 sequel, Now You See Me 2, doubled down on the spectacle while adding Lizzy Caplan and Daniel Radcliffe to the mix. It was less nimble and more bloated, but it still managed a respectable $334 million global haul. In hindsight, that film already showed cracks in the foundation, but compared to the smug emptiness of this new installment, it now looks almost restrained.

Now You See Me 3 Review — Can new characters save it?

Now You See Me Now You Don’t reunites several franchise regulars—Eisenberg’s smarmy illusionist J. Daniel Atlas, Harrelson’s hypnotist Merritt McKinney, Franco’s slippery sleight-of-hand artist Jack Wilder, and Ruffalo’s ever-morose FBI-agent-turned-mentor Dylan Rhodes.

But the real headline is the batch of new, younger cast members, parachuted in with all the subtlety of a marketing department memo. These Gen-Z-bait additions include Justice Smith, who is easily the best of the group; he brings a grounded charm. His co-stars—clearly selected for algorithmic appeal rather than acting chemistry—feel stapled onto the story, awkwardly orbiting the original ensemble like influencers invited to a dinner party with conversation they don’t understand.

This time, the plot begins with the Four Horsemen reuniting for what is pitched as their most daring illusion yet. They’re lured into a globe-trotting chase involving a stolen quantum-encryption prototype, a mysterious new rival troupe of magicians, and a tech billionaire who may or may not be pulling strings from the shadows. She’s played with gusto by Rosamund Pike, whose very authentic South African accent is actually a little distracting.

The screenplay treats exposition like confetti—flung everywhere, sticking nowhere. Scene after scene barrels forward with frantic energy but no clarity, leaving the viewer to piece things together on their own. Justice Smith’s character, a prodigy illusion architect, is the only one granted something resembling an arc, though even his storyline falters amidst plot threads the film can’t be bothered to tie up.

The new herd of Horsemen attempts a series of increasingly outlandish set pieces meant to dazzle: mid-air card manipulations, time-bending escape acts, and reality-warping illusions staged on skyscraper rooftops or in neon illuminated alleys.

Too smug to be engaging, the fun and titillating magic are gone—sacrificed to the overwhelm of obvious CGI. When the audience realizes a trick couldn’t possibly be executed outside of a server farm, all sense of wonder evaporates.

In the background, the score annoys rather than enhances. Nearly every scene is accompanied by a rising, insistent orchestral swell that telegraphs “Tah Dah!” so aggressively that it spoils whatever sliver of tension might have existed. The effect is less magical crescendo and more someone constantly poking you in the ribs.

Now You See Me 3 Review — The bottom line

But what ultimately stunts Now You See Me Now You Don’t is its lack of charm. The plot is needlessly convoluted, the jokes fall flat, and the characters—once charismatic, if somewhat shallow—now feel like poorly rendered avatars of their former selves. The film is oddly pleased with itself, delivering twists with a smug wink that assumes the audience is impressed rather than exhausted.

In the end, this is the threequel no one asked for. It mistakes frenetic spectacle for entertainment, CGI gloss for magic, and noise for suspense. The real illusion here is how the filmmakers convinced themselves that this inferior outing would do the trick.

Rated PG-13

1 Hour 52 Minutes

If this Now You See Me 3 review makes you want to suddenly appear at the cineplex, find times and tickets at Fandango.com.

Lisa Johnson Mandell’s Now You See 3 review says this third chapter in the franchise has run out of magic thanks to magic-free CGI.