Review of Now You See Me 2 (2016) by Patrick L — 17 Aug 2016

"Abracadabra! Please make a better sequel that actually has a twist and makes a lick of sense".

Movie Review: Now You See Me 2.

Date Viewed: June 11 2016.

Directed By Jon M. Chu (Step Up 2: The Streets, Step Up 3D, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Justin Bieber: Never Say Never and Jem and the Holograms).

Screenplay By Ed Solomon, Story By Ed Solomon and Peter Chiarelli, Based on characters created by Boaz Yakin and Edward Ricourt.

Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson,.

Mark Ruffalo, Dave Franco, Lizzy Caplan, Daniel Radcliffe, Sanaa Lathan, Jay Chou, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman.

Abracadabra! Please make a better sequel that actually has a twist and makes a lick of sense. The original "Now You See Me" had promise for a good summer movie three years ago, it was about a group of four magicians known as the Four Horsemen who pulled off elaborate heists, outwitted the FBI and winning the public over as modern day Robin Hoods. The same characters are back in "Now You See Me 2" and this time they are zapped to Macau, China where they encounter a young tech prodigy (Daniel Radcliffe) who played a magician himself.

Is this year of sequels nobody wants, "Now You See Me 2" is a convoluted and miserable failure.

After their climatic heist at the end of the first movie, the Four Horsemen have a new female partner, Lula (Lizzy Caplan, who is taking over for Isla Fisher's Henley) and FBI agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) joins the team as their fifth horsemen. The Horsemen led by J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson) and Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) are assigned to expose a corrupt businessman and his new software which secretly steals the data of it's users.

The Horsemen crash the businessman's launch party but they are interrupted by a mysterious individual who reveals that Wilder is still alive and Dylan Rhodes as the Horsemen's mole. It forces Rhodes to evade authorities and the Four Horsemen to escape but they are zapped from America to Macau, China where they get captured by Merritt's twin brother, Chase (also played by Harrelson). The Horsemen are brought to Chase's employer, young tech prodigy, Walter Mabry (Radcliffe).

Mabry wants the Four Horsemen to pull off another heist, it involves a powerful computer chip that can access into everyone's personal information. To get the tools they need for the heist, they go to a magic shop run by Li (nicely played by Jay Chou). Now framed and wanted by the FBI, Rhodes breaks former rival and magic debunker, Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman) from jail and he helps him into finding out who's behind this conspiracy. Billionaire and former insurance magnate, Arthur Tressler (Michael Caine) is also back for the show but he has vengeful purposes in store for Rhodes and the Four Horsemen.

Most of the magic tricks in "Now You See Me Me 2" are not just highly implausible, the CGI theatrics will also leave you puzzled and shaking your head. It does have fine performances from Chou and Lizzy Caplan and a few funny moments but the screenplay by Ed Solomon (Men in Black, Charlie's Angels, Imagine That and Now You See Me) and Peter Chiarelli is all over the map and did we really need two Woody Harrelsons?

Replacing Louis Leterrier who rather chose to make the dreadful Sacha Baron Cohen comedy "The Brothers Grimsby" is Jon M. Chu who has a history in making sequels (he directed "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" and two of the "Step Up" movies). Chu has made a caper-thriller that neither astonishes or wows us.

"Now You See Me 2" never pulls a rabbit out of it's hat, it just pulls out a mediocre follow-up to the highly successful 2013 original.