Review of Now You See Me 2 (2016) by Judi M — 07 Oct 2017

Now You See Me was a mediocre film. It had some entertaining parts but it was pretty forgettable and did nothing that I thought warranted a sequel. And nothing in Now You See Me 2 has made me change my opinion.

Firstly, Isla Fisher has been replaced with Lizzy Caplan joining the Horsemen. It's not the biggest loss as Isla Fisher seemed to serve little purpose beyond being eye candy. Sadly Lizzy Caplan's character doesn't bring much to the table other than being a bit screechy and annoying.

As for the story, it's a bit of a mess really. With so many twists, the film quickly becomes convoluted and watching it makes watching it feel like a chore. It's clear that the writers have tried to create the feeling that almost everybody might be trying to trick everyone else but it hasn't worked well at all as it's pretty obvious where the film is going to end up. It all it really achieves is giving the film lots of unnecessary padding.

The biggest problem though is the Horseman themselves. Having likeable protagonists is vital for any film but the Horseman are about as unlikeable a bunch of characters as you can get. The Horseman are all smug and arrogant but there's so little time put into character development that a reason to like them never evolved. All I wanted was for them to lose and that's never a good sign for a film.