Surprisingly, movies about magic have not been made too often in the history of film. Some recent examples are “The Prestige,” “The Illusionist,” and “Hugo.” Unfortunately, though, these films are the rare good ones. “Now You See Me” had just as much potential; yet, when fully laid out, does not quite reach that same level. It’s as if the production team began a magic trick that would immediately captivate audiences; yet, about halfway through, forgot how it was supposed to end. So, they just sort of threw something together. Though containing a well-rounded cast, and some mildly entertaining magic sequences; the film comes up mostly empty-handed.

“Now You See Me” is great on paper. Four magicians, who originally worked independently, are brought together by an unknown outside source; in order to work on a stage show together. They are the following: J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), a magician who shows his skills through street crowds; Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), a mentalist with an exceptional gift for hypnotizing people; Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher), an escape artist who attempts dangerous stunts; and Jack Wilder (Dave Franco), another street magician with a rare gift for misdirection and also card-throwing (I didn’t know that was a thing either).

So, you take these four interesting singular personalities,  blend them together into an elaborate stage show, which was scripted by a mysterious stranger with unknown motives; and then you throw in Morgan Freeman as a professional skeptic, Mark Ruffalo as an FBI agent, and Michael Caine as a rich millionaire sort-of bad guy; and what do you get? Somehow, boredom.

That’s not to say that the entire film was a let-down. From the start, I was actually drawn in by the concept of magic, something that had always fascinated me. And the different styles of tricks portrayed by the magicians provided a full spectrum of what magic could do. The most engaging part is the first stage-show led by the four magicians, now known as the “Four Horsemen,” which consisted of robbing a bank. They chose a stranger from the crowd at random, strapped him to a teleportation device, and then whooshed him off to Paris, where the man entered a vault, took all the money, and left the Horsemen’s card in return. And after being brought back, all of the money rained down on the lucky crowd. I had never heard of such a thing, though I sort of wish real magic shows would start to do this.

And, somehow, the bank in Paris is actually robbed. But, the authorities cannot gain an ounce of evidence that the Four Horsemen had done anything illegal, and so are forced to let them go. But here is where “Now You See Me” loses its edge. The remainder of the 115 minutes consists of unbelievable romantic connections, lame and unimpressive tricks, and awkward dialogue, which is unfortunately spoken by talented actors. Like the Four Horsemen themselves, each character in this film is interesting on their own. (Mark Ruffalo in particular). But, when forced in the same room, the chemistry is lacking. The magic, unfortunately, is just not there.

The ending of “Now You See Me” provides a series of twists, which eventually provides at least a few answers to the film’s many questions. And, for once, I did not see it coming. But it’s not the level of surprise that a movie like “The Prestige” presents, which makes you think over the entire film’s events, almost even forcing you to re-watch it a second or even third time in order to pick up on the little hints given throughout. Here, instead, it was a momentary shock; unexpected, yes, but not doing much for the movie as a whole. If I had cared about the previous two hours, maybe the ending would have meant more. But for now, I think I’ll just watch “The Prestige” again.