Now You See Me 2
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The sequel to the 2013 film Now You See Me finds the Four Horsemen – Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Jack Wilder (Dave Franco), Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson) and newcomer Lula (Lizzy Caplan), (who replaces Isla Fisher’s Henley Reeves from the first film as Fisher was pregnant when the film was being made) laying low a year after their Robin Hood-style heist. The “Fifth Horseman”, FBI agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) gets direction for the Horsemen from the mysterious The Eye organization, while pretending to his FBI bosses to be trying to bring in the Horsemen, to the doubts of some in the organization.
The Horsemen plan to come out of hiding at the launch of a new mobile phone that will be able to steal the privacy of those who use it. Instead, a trick is played on them, and they end up in Macau, China, “the Las Vegas of China”, having been kidnapped by billionaire Walter Mabry (Daniel Radcliffe), who the public assumes has been dead for a year. Mabry needs them to use their skills to steal a priceless computer circuit known as “the stick”, which can de-encrypt any computer on the planet, for him. Merritt’s irritating twin brother, also played by Harrelson, is out for revenge and is assisting Mabry. To prepare for their assignment, the Horsemen visit the world’s oldest magic shop, run by Li (Jay Chou) and his mother Bu Bu (Tsai Chin).
The film centers on a thirty-year connection between magic debunker Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman) and Rhodes, who Rhodes put in prison at the end of the last film. Michael Caine, the group’s patron in the first film, returns as billionaire Arthur Tressler.
The film contains much to enjoy, including the Macau and London locations, the dialogue and chemistry among the Horsemen and magical sleight of hand aided by excellent camera work and computer generated imagery (CGI). There is much going on in the film and it contains a lot of twists and turns. Like the best magic acts, things are not always as you think they are based on what you have seen with your eyes. There are certainly holes in the script, and I was particularly disappointed with the ending, but still found the film to be entertaining overall.
The film features a strong cast with two Oscar winners (Freeman and Caine) and three Oscar nominees (Eisenberg, Ruffalo and Harrelson). It is directed by Jon M. Chu (Louis Leterrier directed the first film), and is written by Ed Solomon, who also wrote the screenplay for the first film.
Content concerns include some adult language and some abuses of God’s and Jesus’ names.
We will see the Horsemen again, as Now You See Me 3 has been announced.
