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An FBI agent and an Interpol detective track a team of illusionists who pull off bank heists during their performances and reward their audiences with the money.
I missed this one at the cinema over the summer and damn I wish I hadn’t.
We’ve had some stunning special effects films this year, (Iron Man 3 for instance) but this is a tour de force of special effects!
Now I am a sucker for illusion (just ask Movian, he rarely paid for a round just because of his card tricks) and Now You See Me had me totally sucked in from teh beginning
I’ve become a bit of a fan of Mark Ruffalo since Avengers (of course taking over the HULK role from Edward Norton, and honestly, I think it was a good change) and he is damned good as the FBI agent continually on the back foot and spun around by the Four Horseman. His Interpol partner Alma Dray (played by Mélanie Laurent) is a great juxtaposition to Ruffalo’s Dylan Rhodes, Learning and reading all about the culture of magic and magicians circle, etc, plus a budding romance that is actually quite sweet.
Of course, the stars of the film are the Four Horsemen, J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merritt McKinnley (Woody Harrelson), Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher) and Jack Wilder (Dave Franco). Jack is the new boy, picked for his brilliant pick pocketing and illusion skills, but Atlas, Reeves and McKinnley have history (Reeves being Atlas’ assistant in the past and then going her own way solo), all bought together by a mysterious figure and given all the tools and planning for a year of amazing magic and illusion (and a few massive bank heists thrown in the mix)
The film is a rollercoaster ride, its a constant up and down, but the pace is magnificent. The characters work brilliantly, including Morgan Freeman‘s Thaddeus Bradley, who professionally debunks and exposes magicians tricks after not getting into the magic circle himself and wanting revenge on the whole business, plus Michael Caine‘s Arthur Tressler, the Four Horseman’s financial backer (or is he :P)
This is, as I said, an amazing film, it’s beautiful, it’s funny and grimm in equal measure, the characters are genuinely likeable and you will them on. The action is grand and the effects are LITERALLY magical (sorry, I had to)
An alteration of the timeline for the superhero, The Flash, creates ripples that disastrously alters the Universe. The Flash must team with other heroes to restore the timeline while the Earth is ravaged by a war between Aquaman’s Atlantis and Wonder Woman’s Amazons
The DC animated film series has caught up with the changes for the “New 52” that happened in the comics
And strangely, the speedster is the reason for this HUGE change, unlike the usual suspects of Superman or Batman
The film starts with a young Barry Allen and his mum stuck on the side of the road, car broken down and instantly you see the bond this mother and son have (plus a very Spiderman-esque, “With great power, comes great resposibility” moment too). This quickly shifts to Barry coming home to find his mother dead from a home invasion on her b’day.
Now I’ll admit, I’ve always seen the Speedster as the joker of the Justice League, but Flashpoint Paradox shows him as a responsible and loving member of the team instead. Yes there are wise cracks, but this story shows even more so how Flash is the soul of this team. Now we’ve seen what happens when Lex Luthor killed Flash, the JLA become the Justice Lords and took over the world, but what about a world where Flash’s mother survived the home invasion, Bruce died in the alleyway instead of his mother and father, Superman was found by the government instead of the Kents, Aquaman and Wonder Woman formed an alliance, that led to war after they have an affair and Mara is killed by Wonder Woman and Aquaman looks for revenge… Well, the world is pretty fucked up to be fair and Barry Allen is the only man who can fix it (Well, Superman could if he wasn’t a reclusive frail man that has no clue)
I had to read up on this after watching it as I am MASSIVELY behind on DC comics of late (Sorry, but Marvel has held my attention far more in teh last few years)
Flashpoint was the end of the “52” years and the start of the “New 52” reboot and it makes complete sense. BUT, unless you know what changed, you just have to accept the changes and the WTF moment you get at the end of this animated film
Now I’ve said this before and I will say it again.
Marvel have won the live action films for their heroes and although I loved Man of Steel, I was NOT a fan of The Dark Knight Trilogy. I would be exceptionally happy if DC stuck to doing the animated films, while Marvel stick to doing the feature films.
Flashpoint Paradox is a perfect animated film from DC and leads us straight into Justice League: War, which is coming next year (there is even a little post credits scene that brings that into readiness)
The animation at the start was a little off and sometimes I’m not a fan of the animation style in this film, especially when it comes to some of the fight scenes where they are trying to show power in the characters (the elongated look of the character, almost Aeon Flux style), but I like the changes to the characters and the story is top notch aswell, so it is totally deserving a space in your DvD/BluRay shelves
