Review of Now You See Me 2 Full Movie: I won't lie. When I found out they were going to make the second movie, I thought we'd be let down. A lot of sequels are not up to the first but if anything, this second movie proved they can be better! I was at the edge of my seat throughout every scene! I loved how Daniel Radcliffe's character said that he was similar to Dylan because of their fathers.
I wish we had more of Hailey leaving the horsemen, though. All in all, 5 out of 5. Nice job! Now you see me 2 suffers in much the same way as it's predecessor. In fact, you would be very hard-pressed to tell the two films apart, aside from Jesse Eisenberg's uncharismatic lump shaving his hair. What it does succeed in, however, is reaffirming my belief that the Prestige and The Illusionist are far superior magic based films.
So Now you see me 2, the team of egotistical maniacs that is the horseman are back and doing exactly just as they did before, albeit now much like an episode of the BBC's excellent Hustle the team are on the back foot quite spectacularly and have to right themselves again. Though Hustle doesn't drag on for 126 minutes, nor force Lizzy Captain's abominable new female lead down our throats. She in your face performance is so forced and absolutely excruciating to watch she almost gave me a migraine in her first scene. the rest of the movie, however, isn't actually that bad, it's all very silly, very camp. But also mildly entertaining. But just like the original, it tries to outplay its hand, out-think itself and just falls flat instead of pulling the rug out from under us it pulls it out from its own feet.
Full of amazing visuals, great performances with the Horsemen getting treated more like the protagonist's thanks to the plot twist from the last movie and still having some awesome moments, Now You See Me 2 still fails to live up to what made the first film a decent flick. In this sequel, I became convinced that they probably did have superpowers. The third act seems to accidentally confirm this. It's not to say that the first movie didn't have lack of plausibility but at least my willing suspension of disbelief wasn't threatened. The irony: a movie about magic and the one actor who's famous for magic doesn't do any magic tricks.
Not even a small Harry Potter in-joke, Radcliffe? And the Michael Caine plot twist isn't surprising. Why? Because the fact that there are two British actors in this American movie who're getting name billings is enough to become The Unreveal. That, and the fact that interviews and even one synopsis from before the movie came out, revealed the relationship between Harry and Alfred. And it's not really surprising who the main villain is in this movie. If none of these concern you may be the feminist and China pandering may be annoying. Yeah, they're in Macau for most of the movie. All culminating in one of the most convoluted Batman Gambits I have ever seen in my entire life. I'm just waiting for them to build a time machine and go visit aliens in the third movie. Now You See Me 2 (Audience: "WHADDYA MEAN YOU DIDN'T CALL IT "NOW YOU DON'T?") still has good in it and I'm happy the Horsemen are treated as the main characters this time around unlike the last movie which was unsure who's the real protagonist but in the end it's just a superhero movie disguised as a movie about magic that stars Harry Potter for no reason other than because of the character's association with magic.
The first Now You See Me was a very enjoyable and entertaining flick that boasted a good cast and visually impressive stunts. The second, called Now You See Me 2, on the other hand, was mediocre at best lacking the 'wow' factor of the first. Still boasting the stellar cast of the first movie with the added Daniel Radcliffe and Lizzy Caplan, who replaces Isla Fisher as the 'girl' horseman in the group, the second act as it is so-called, tries hard to make an intelligent story. This attempt backfires as the plot becomes bloated and too complex to understand towards the end of the movie, and the tricks become unconvincing.
The Four Horseman, Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) and Lulla (Lizzy Caplan), are hiding and the FBI are searching for them. They have been waiting for over a year to return to the stage and the leader of the Horseman, Dylan Rhodes, played by Mark Ruffalo, orchestrates there comeback. But as their jubilant return seemed to be going smoothly, the stage is hijacked by Walter Mabry, played by the magical Daniel Radcliffe. The magicians are then sent to Macau, where Walter awaits them. His goal is to find and steal a computer chip with the ability to decrypt all of the data in the world using the Four Horsemen thieving skills. Rhodes is arrested as the FBI find out about his connection with the Horseman, but he escapes and gets a call from Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman), the magician he blames for the death of the father, who says he is able to help Dylan. But the deal can only be done if Dylan can get him out of prison. This plot seems easy enough to understand, but as the movie continues to develop, it becomes a whole lot more complicated than you would've thought. The movies continuing story becomes implausible, in particular, the part about the computer chip.
There are many things I enjoyed with the movie but there also seems to be a little problem after that. As a whole, the visuals are really good, but there are times where it goes a bit too far (back to implausible). The cast and acting were good, but the characters are very much the same as in the first movie. There is nothing new about them, with the exception of Mark Ruffalo's character. We are given a better and more thoughtful backstory about his past and more emotional understanding. Out of the horseman, Woody Harrison's character is the only one whose past is even talked about when his brother comes into the frame, which didn't really do much to the movie. I personally didn't like it that much. I enjoyed Isla Fisher's replacement in Lizzy Caplan. She was a fun and provides some positive energy to the group, which contain some boring members. She has a personality which some of the characters lacked, but her role only took a bad turn when she and Dave Franco's character, Jack Wilder, entered a horribly-developed relationship, which had a nonsensical impact on the already bloated story. As long as the team had chemistry, which they did, I was fine with some of the minor problems.
The tricks were impressive but I didn't find the 'wow' factor like I did in the first movie. Also, as Thaddeus was a magic debunker, I would've liked, even for a brief minute or two, for him to explain how some of the tricks worked, which would've helped the audience, but also expand his role in the movie, especially as he is such a great actor. Continuing on with the tricks, I wish that they didn't all have to have some sort-of CGI work on them. One of the things I liked about the first movie was some of the tricks didn't require CG work at all because they were entirely performed by the magician. Though I know that the people performing the tricks are not magicians, they could've at least applied some free-hand stuff for the actors to perform.
Overall, the movie, despite its bloated story and extensive CGI work, was entertaining and fun to watch. It has some resemblance to the first movie, which I didn't entirely enjoy, and hope that if they do make a third (I hear they are) that they make a more believable and different story, continuing on with some of the great visual effects.
Not even a small Harry Potter in-joke, Radcliffe? And the Michael Caine plot twist isn't surprising. Why? Because the fact that there are two British actors in this American movie who're getting name billings is enough to become The Unreveal. That, and the fact that interviews and even one synopsis from before the movie came out, revealed the relationship between Harry and Alfred. And it's not really surprising who the main villain is in this movie. If none of these concern you may be the feminist and China pandering may be annoying. Yeah, they're in Macau for most of the movie. All culminating in one of the most convoluted Batman Gambits I have ever seen in my entire life. I'm just waiting for them to build a time machine and go visit aliens in the third movie. Now You See Me 2 (Audience: "WHADDYA MEAN YOU DIDN'T CALL IT "NOW YOU DON'T?") still has good in it and I'm happy the Horsemen are treated as the main characters this time around unlike the last movie which was unsure who's the real protagonist but in the end it's just a superhero movie disguised as a movie about magic that stars Harry Potter for no reason other than because of the character's association with magic.
The Four Horseman, Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) and Lulla (Lizzy Caplan), are hiding and the FBI are searching for them. They have been waiting for over a year to return to the stage and the leader of the Horseman, Dylan Rhodes, played by Mark Ruffalo, orchestrates there comeback. But as their jubilant return seemed to be going smoothly, the stage is hijacked by Walter Mabry, played by the magical Daniel Radcliffe. The magicians are then sent to Macau, where Walter awaits them. His goal is to find and steal a computer chip with the ability to decrypt all of the data in the world using the Four Horsemen thieving skills. Rhodes is arrested as the FBI find out about his connection with the Horseman, but he escapes and gets a call from Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman), the magician he blames for the death of the father, who says he is able to help Dylan. But the deal can only be done if Dylan can get him out of prison. This plot seems easy enough to understand, but as the movie continues to develop, it becomes a whole lot more complicated than you would've thought. The movies continuing story becomes implausible, in particular, the part about the computer chip.
There are many things I enjoyed with the movie but there also seems to be a little problem after that. As a whole, the visuals are really good, but there are times where it goes a bit too far (back to implausible). The cast and acting were good, but the characters are very much the same as in the first movie. There is nothing new about them, with the exception of Mark Ruffalo's character. We are given a better and more thoughtful backstory about his past and more emotional understanding. Out of the horseman, Woody Harrison's character is the only one whose past is even talked about when his brother comes into the frame, which didn't really do much to the movie. I personally didn't like it that much. I enjoyed Isla Fisher's replacement in Lizzy Caplan. She was a fun and provides some positive energy to the group, which contain some boring members. She has a personality which some of the characters lacked, but her role only took a bad turn when she and Dave Franco's character, Jack Wilder, entered a horribly-developed relationship, which had a nonsensical impact on the already bloated story. As long as the team had chemistry, which they did, I was fine with some of the minor problems.
The tricks were impressive but I didn't find the 'wow' factor like I did in the first movie. Also, as Thaddeus was a magic debunker, I would've liked, even for a brief minute or two, for him to explain how some of the tricks worked, which would've helped the audience, but also expand his role in the movie, especially as he is such a great actor. Continuing on with the tricks, I wish that they didn't all have to have some sort-of CGI work on them. One of the things I liked about the first movie was some of the tricks didn't require CG work at all because they were entirely performed by the magician. Though I know that the people performing the tricks are not magicians, they could've at least applied some free-hand stuff for the actors to perform.
Overall, the movie, despite its bloated story and extensive CGI work, was entertaining and fun to watch. It has some resemblance to the first movie, which I didn't entirely enjoy, and hope that if they do make a third (I hear they are) that they make a more believable and different story, continuing on with some of the great visual effects.
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