After the end of their three biggest cinema series – “Twilight”, “The Hunger Games” and “Destiny” – those responsible at the US studio Lionsgate were under particularly great pressure in 2016: new franchises had to be launched as quickly as possible in order not to completely give away the gigantic market share of previous years for an independent player. The tongue-in-cheek heist series “The Incredibles” about the magician quartet “Four Horsemen”, who use their illusion skills like Robin Hood for the good of humanity, seemed particularly promising. After all, the first two parts had already achieved great success at the global box office.
After “The Incredibles” (approx. 350 million dollars in box office receipts vs. 75 million dollars budget) and “The Incredibles 2” (approx. 330 million vs. 90 million), not only “The Incredibles 3” should follow, but also a Chinese spin-off at the same time (part 2 was particularly well received there). In addition, the magical secret organization “The Eye” was already interpreted in “The Incredibles” in such a way that it would have been easy to further expand the franchise along the lines of the Marvel Cinematic Universe – with Mark Ruffalo as “The Eye” agent Dylan Rhodes in a connecting mentor role that would have roughly corresponded to that of Samuel L. Jackson in the MCU.
Since the second part, the magician ensemble has expanded again – and then there are even some returning cameos, which we don't want to anticipate at this point…
But puff cake! Instead of a quick sequel, there were problems with the first drafts of the script, the departure of director Jon M. Chu (who made the hits “Crazy Rich” and “Wicked” instead) and the challenge of balancing the busy schedules of the well-known ensemble. The result: Despite the announcement that “The Incredibles 4” is still to come, “The Incredibles 3 – Now You See Me”, directed by “Venom” director Ruben Fleischer, has the impression of a not exactly compelling afterthought after nine years of simmering in production hell. But the most important thing: The cast in good spirits once again provides humorous comedy-thriller entertainment.
Also pleasing: screenwriter Michael Lesslie, who recently restarted the “Hunger Games” franchise for Lionsgate with his script for “The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes”, largely refrains from directly taking up the deepening of the mythology that was advanced in Part 2 – that would also be difficult because after the long break without re-watching, you no longer remember much of the predecessors so clearly. Instead, “The Incredibles 3” also stands well on its own: of course it helps to already know the characters, but you can easily follow the plot even without prior knowledge. To do this, however, Lesslie uses another device that is particularly “in” in the genre of legacy sequels (best example: “Ghostbusters: Afterlife”): the introduction of a next generation.
The ensemble is growing again
Instead of the Four Horsemen, it is the young illusionists June (Ariana Greenblatt), Charlie (Justice Smith) and Bosco (Dominic Sessa) who, at the beginning of the film, stage an underground magic show to ensure that the millions transferred abroad by Crypto Bros go back to the audience and a New York social fund. However, the appearance also attracts the attention of her role models. That same evening, the illusion icon J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg) suddenly appears in the kitchen with the three of them and tells them that The Eye has intended them for an important mission: This time it's about taking down the blood diamond empire of Veronika Vanderberg (in the original with a magnificently greasy Dutch accent: Rosamund Pike)!
The first step is to steal the Heart Diamond, the largest diamond ever found, which is currently on public display in Amsterdam for the first time in decades, under the eyes of its owner and her guest group consisting of arms dealers and dictators. But of course nothing is as it first seems! And soon the three remaining Four Horsemen members, all of whom no longer get along particularly well with each other – the mentalist Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), the escape artist Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher) and the card magician Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) – join the newly formed team…
The room with the distorted perspective was actually built like this on set – every single prop had to be specially made as a “distorted” version.
At the beginning, the Crypto Bros show off their luxury watches so clumsily that you can't help but despise them from the bottom of your heart – and as if the blood diamonds mined under exploitative circumstances weren't bad enough, Veronika Vanderberg is also accused of murder and her family is accused of a Nazi past. It's all pretty trite, but it serves its purpose: We're keeping our fingers crossed for the magicians that they'll really show the business villains. It is a particularly striking case of cognitive dissonance that the grand finale of “The Incredibles 3” takes place in the context of the Formula 1 parkour on the luxury island of Yas Island.
This is certainly also the case because the Abu Dhabi tourism authority donated a million or two for the production (in return, the advertising slogan “The Orlando of the Arab World” is even prominently mentioned). But although such (questionable) collaborations have long been normal for Hollywood productions, it still seems very strange, especially in this case, when the Four Horsemen stand up for the rights of exploited African miners in front of this audience of all people. Until we get into the desert, which has been staged effectively for advertising purposes, the twisted heists and dry sayings follow in quick succession in the best “The Incredibles” style – so entertainment is guaranteed.
Magic in the cinema is not automatically magical
Those responsible make every effort to get the most out of the magical skills of their protagonists – it's not that easy: Because in the cinema, unlike a real stage show, if in doubt you can simply use CGI effects, illusion tricks often don't look particularly impressive on the screen – you quickly feel like you're in a comic film adaptation with superhumanly gifted heroes rather than in a heist film à la “Ocean's Eleven”, where it is What matters most is the intelligence and skill of those involved. But in this respect, “The Incredibles 3” does two things right in particular: Firstly, the Heists explain exactly why the Four Horsemen and their younger comrades-in-arms did what they did and how they did it. For example, the theft of the Heart Diamond in the first round seems like a typical comic blockbuster sequence.
But then flashbacks reveal exactly which tricks and gadgets are actually behind the supposedly impossible events. And on the other hand – especially in the scenes in a French magician's estate – a lot was solved with real buildings: There is a room that rotates on its own axis like in “Inception”, a room with a completely distorted perspective and a room with “infinite stairs” like in an optical illusion by MC Escher. It all looks cool straight away – but it only really unfolds its full potential when a police unit suddenly appears on the mat and an almost cartoon-like chase begins through the magical rooms…
Conclusion: After a nine-year break, did there really need to be a third “The Incredibles – Now You See Me” film? No! Is it still fun? Yes!