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Review: Marvin’s iMagic was originally published on 16th November 2015 and is by SamuelPatterson.
RRP: £24.99
Marvin’s Magic has long held a reputation as one of the greatest suppliers of magical illusions to the world of aspiring and professional performers.
Since 1987, they have been at the forefront of magical developments and pride themselves on providing quality tools useable by almost anyone willing to give them a try.
Fast forward to 2015 and they have released what at first glance promises to be an exciting new foray into the world where magic and technology meet firmly in the middle to bring new astonishment to our tech-savvy world;Marvin’s iMagic.
Alas, the excitement is short lived.
Marvin’s iMagic proves to be a bitter disappointment. “Smart magic for smart devices” reads the slogan on the front of the box, snugly resting on the screen of an iPhone. But unfortunately, smart is the exact opposite of what we get. From a smartphone app that is near impossible to navigate or put to any good use, to cheap, transparently obvious tools that are easy to see through, this box proves to be more full of blunders than it does wonders.
Perhaps the most painful mistake is choosing to make it painfully obvious from the start that magic is going to be happening. In order to perform any of the tricks included in the set, you have to use the application, and a terribly overt logo is present throughout, making it quite clear to all that this ‘magic’ isn’t coming from the performer in front of you at all, but from cheap technological displays on a screen.
That is the most upsetting part of this set. The developers have taken all the crucial skill required of a magician to bring delight and wonder to audiences, and replaced it with pixelated pretence. Nothing about the set feels in anyway organic or natural, and whilst one wouldn’t want to reveal how any of the ‘tricks’ are done (hint: through rote screen-based presentations), I can say that I would be more impressed to find somebody who is themselves impressed by this set, than I would be by the set itself.
Having purchased Marvin’s Magic sets before and always been somewhat delighted by them I can firmly say that this set falls tragically flat. As flat as the iPhone screen that’s doing all the real work.
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