[Weekly Update] Now You See Me

I'm finally back in the office and begins working again. And it finally daunts on me how much has happened in the past month or so. If you are having a hard time, be it financial, political, or just because your VTuber Oshi is retiring, I hope things are getting better soon. I and everyone in this community will be with you along this journey.

CHANNEL UPDATE

App Store fees:
Into December, Apple had began applying App Store fees to Patreon subscriptions if you are paying through the Patreon app on iOS. Switch to using the Patreon website can avoid this fee.

Video Delay:
Our next video is sitting on the counter waiting to be served. But due to the Thanksgiving Holiday, response from sponsors have been slow, and I'm still waiting for confirmation for the video to go live. Sorry about the delay but this is beyond my control, mostly.

Bonus Video:
In the mean time, we have uploaded our bonus video for November. It's about Furiosa, a movie I enjoyed and was wondering why no one is talking about it.

MISC:
Oh and just for the ease of reading, I'll start each important paragraph with a three word title TL:DR from now on, so you can pick and choose which part you want read and skip the informations you already know.

Not much change to our channel in the mean time. I'll be working on part 2 of our Journey to the West video. Hopefully it'll be done soon.

MEDIA TALK

Originally I wanted to talk about Now You See Me in this month's bonus video. It's another movie I watched on my flight back to Montreal. I thought I have a lot to say about it. It certainly stirs up a lot of (mixed) feelings within me. But when I sit down to write about it, everything I want to say feels rather hollow... kinda like the movie itself.

Boom, roasted.

Now You See Me is a 2013 heist film featuring a bunch of magicians turned vigilante thieves, all told through the perspective of an FBI agent. It is a flashy premise with an even flashier execution, to a point it becomes the definition of style over substance. From its borderline fetishized view of magic (mostly involving Woody Harrelson's ability to hypnotize people within seconds and mind control them), to its tacky Las Vegas aesthetic, to the instantly dated sexualization of its female lead with no personality, to the fact that the thieves are called "The Four Horsemen" are just so... Chunni.

The plot, written as if it's a magic show, relies heavily on plot twists that don't make sense in order to surprises you. It is a movie that cannot be analyzed, for the ore you think about it the more frustrated you get.

And yet, I can't look away from it.

I guess a part of it was because how clearly the director's vision came through. Everything in the movie is meant to dazzle you, to catch you off guard while you are on guard. To charm you and to entertain you. Even though the plot is really, and I do mean really, dumb, it doesn't feel like it is pretending to be smart. It certainly did not treat its audience in a condescending manner. The explanation of its magic tricks, when offered, are brief and to the point. In fact, when watching this movie, it's pretty common to see people explaining what just happened to their friends who are slower or wasn't paying attention. It really strikes a nice balance in being accessible while respecting its audience's intelligent.

As a result, the movie feels entirely cohesive. It's just a show, a movie; don't take it seriously. And it only annoys privileged asshats like me, who gets paid to analyze movies. In other words, I'm just not the movie's target audience, and it is not the movie's fault.

Yet still, I was interested enough to watch the sequel. Though I admitted, I was mostly just interested in seeing what Jon M. Chu was doing before Crazy Rich Asians.

Now You See Me 2, with an Asian director at the helm, includes a lot more Asian elements, no doubt to appeal to a Chinese market. It exchanged the Vegas aesthetic for the Macau visual and setting. It stars Daniel Radcliffe, a star popular in Asia (insert magic joke here). It has a cameo from Jay Chou, everyone's favourite Taiwanese idol back then.

The gambit worked. I remember this movie being a fairly big phenomenon when it came out. Chinese cinema was still in the middle of its visual excess phase back then, so this movie was right up people's alley. Though, like the Fast and Furious movies, reviews constantly criticized it for being kinda dumb, it didn't stop people from praising it for being a fun ride.

The last bit of context to remember is that NYSM2 came out in 2016, the same year Captain America Civil War came out. In a time when superhero movies reigned supreme, it's wild to see a newly emerged original IP to be this successful. That alone is respectable.

If only I'm not an asshole, I'd have praise this movie for real.

Anyway, that's my disjointed rambling about the Now You See Me movies. Supposedly a 3rd film is coming out next year. A lot has changed since 2016, the world and its attitude is a lot more cynical. There are a lot more people like me around. I wonder if it would still be successful at kindling people's sense of wonder, or if it'll flopped because... well, I don't know how many people will go to the theaters for this movie in this economy.

I'll see you in our next update... or video, which ever comes first.