Just like action sequences, magic in the movies is extremely impressive sometimes since it can wow the audience and make the impossible look entirely possible since with a little help from Hollywood and a lot of time forgetting what’s practical and what could happen versus what does happen, magic comes off as one of the greatest things in the movies. The only problem is that sometimes it’s necessary to call out what’s real and what’s fake. Hollywood is there to make things look better and to amaze the audience in a way that will get them to keep watching, not necessarily to fool them, but to keep their audience happy. In that regard, some of the tricks that are seen on the screen tend to be a little overplayed and dolled up in order to make them look even more incredible. That kind of thing is very typical of Hollywood since that’s the game, and making everything look better is how people in Hollywood get paid. With any profession, hobby, or passion though, it’s going to happen that those who know it best are going to be able to spot most of what’s real and what isn’t.
Sleight of hand is one of the biggest practices in Hollywood movies since it’s one of the simplest to produce on-screen given that it’s little more than skillful deception. It can be tricking someone that’s right in front of you or tricking a group with a feat of manual dexterity that leaves people amazed, but it’s also one of the best things that any magician can have in their bag of tricks since it’s also one of the most important. The thing about the scene in Now You See Me 2 however is that the Horsemen are in a room where there are literally sightlines everywhere that could be picking up what they’re doing, and somehow the people that are checking them for a hidden device are always conveniently looking the other way. This is Hollywood, since if there were four individuals that were suspected of stealing or tampering with something important they’d likely closely watched and wouldn’t be able to perform the feats that are so impressive but so horribly visible as well.
Some might want to say that there’s a good chance that their practice has paid off and they’re just that good, but there’s a group of armed guards watching the four of them continuously while they’re being checked, and like it or not, that card flipping around, or being within someone’s peripheral vision, or even being visible when it’s being palmed, would have been detected rather quickly. In the movies, there’s usually something that’s been done to pull the wool over the eyes of the audience, such as the negation of any sound when Ethan Hunt plays sleight of hand with the top-secret list that he and his small group stole from Langley in Mission: Impossible. As one of the men above said, there would be a sound if a disc was slid along the interior of a jacket, and curiously, in the movie, there isn’t one. Add onto that the fact that Ethan was bluffing and that the other man did have the actual list, and this is a pretty neat trick.
Magic in the movies is definitely impressive most times since Hollywood takes the more practical effects and does what can be done with them in order to make them even more impressive. Those tricks that are actually being performed by the actors are even better since it does mean that the actors took the time to learn the steps, and in some cases are actually students of magic and have a very deep respect for it. This is what separates some of the best in the business from those that are just going through the motions, since actually enjoying what one is doing and practicing it off-screen makes a big difference in delivery and showmanship since both Dave Franco and Tom Cruise put on a good how in their respective movies and managed to get the audience to raise their eyebrows at their antics. Showmanship is after all one of the trademarks of a good magician, and something that anyone worth their tricks knows about.
So yes, Hollywood does beef up the magic act of many an actor in a lot of movies, but this is for a good reason since the average magic act isn’t bound to impress a large audience unless it’s performed on a stage and with a decided purpose. The fact that Hollywood movies seek to improve upon magic acts isn’t that big of a deal, but it’s interesting to note which parts are legit and which parts are less than impressive since they needed a lot of help. All in all though, magic does make for a great addition to many movies.
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