Now You See Me 2 (2016) Review

'Now You See Me 2' once again stars Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, and Dave Franco along with newcomer to the series Lizzy Caplan as the Four Horsemen, the infamous magicians/robin hoods who disappeared after getting their revenge on Arthur Tressler (Michael Caine) and Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman) only to be tricked themselves into stealing a valuable computer chip for technophile Walter Mabry (Daniel Radcliffe).

The film tries to up the ante more and more as the runtime goes trying to outdo its predecessor every step of the way. For the most part, this works to a degree while it deflates both this film and the original in others. First off, the star-studded cast is excellent and by far the highlight of the film with Lizzy Caplan's new horseman and Radcliffe's take as a villain being the two standouts. The film also is a spectacle and visually heavy film that sacrifices some story and the impact of the reveals in the process.

A lot of the feelings behind the film that they want us to feel, primarily Mark Ruffalo's background seems to inspire little emotion or at least not getting me as interested in it as they seem to want. As I said, the film is visually heavy, and at the very least these are always great to watch. The magic acts, whether done on stage or during a fist fight are all fun to watch even if some defy believe even for a magic act (stopping the rain and falling backwards to turn into rain confused me). If I really had anything to completely hate about 'NYSM 2' would be the twin brother of Harrelson's character (also played by him) who is important to the story and helps keep it along for a while, but he's so irritating and I just wish they connected the villains to the heroes in some other way.

'Now You See Me 2' doesn't exactly improve on the original, however it's not a lesser film contrary to what other critics may tell you. It's about the same, and just as entertaining. It also unfortunately does not seemed to have learned from their previous mistakes and here's hoping part 3 of this trilogy is a home runner.

'NOW YOU SEE ME 2' GETS AN:

((B-))

Rating: PG-13 (Language/Violence)

Studio: Lionsgate Entertainment

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