Now You See Me 2 (2016) Review

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

When the truth is out, the layers of it are gonna be quite interesting to look at.


PLOT


Now You See Me 2 takes place only 18 months after the first film where the Four Horsemen (J Daniel Atlas, Merritt McKinney & Jack Wilder) are now wanted fugitives as part of recruiting into the secret society of magicians, The Eye. With Henley wanting out of the group as she grew tired of waiting, just like Atlas, illusionist Lula May is recruited by their handler, FBI agent Dylan Rhodes, son of the late Lionel Shrike, instructing them to expose corrupt tech CEO Owen Case. The plan almost goes well in New York, but a mysterious figure exposes Jack faked his death and Rhodes is their accomplice. As the latter evades his superior, Deputy Director Natalie Austin (Sanaa Lathan), the rest of the Horsemen escape down a construction chute only to find themselves in Macau. They get intercepted by Merritt’s twin brother Chase who is also a skilled hypnotist. He takes the four to Owen’s former business partner, Walter Mabry, who wants them to steal a microchip from the Macau Science Center that he made for Owen meant to access any computer system worldwide. Knowing he can’t be trusted, Atlas agrees on behalf of the team intending to give it to The Eye. Once they acquire supplies from a magic store owned by a young man named Li and his grandma Bu Bu (Jay Chou & Tsai Chin), the Horsemen pose as potential buyers and are able to get the chip past the building’s supervisor, Allen Scott Frank (Henry Lloyd-Hughes), via cardistry & sleight of hand. Dylan reaches Macau after getting help of the magic debunker he framed, Thaddeus Bradley, who knew from a contact where they could be. He does quickly find Daniel trying to give the chip to the Eye, only to discover Walter was deceiving them on that aspect. Dylan helps Atlas escape whereas he gets captured and meets Walter’s biological father, Arthur Tressler, who is still upset of the Horsemen stealing all his money. The father-son duo retaliate by throwing Rhodes into a safe to drown in, much like his dad, but is luckily saved by the Horsemen in time. With the chip being a fake, the group plans to lure out Walter by announcing to perform in London, threatening to expose him. This forces him to fly there with Arthur and Chase hoping to stop this from happening. They track them down one by one and are able to get the chip back, which Walter confirms to be the real deal. Getting what they wanted, Chase throws them out of a moving plane, only to realize it never took off and they were misled with a set floating on Thames; Jack revealed that he successfully hypnotized Chase to throw them off. With the incident being broadcasted worldwide, he as well as Arthur and Walter are taken into fbi custody while Dylan & the Horsemen get to escape apprehension again. The gang later arrives at the Greenwich Observatory where Allen, Li & Bu Bu officially reveal to be members of the Eye. Dylan even makes amends with Bradley when he reveals to have been not only the current leader of the society, but a close friend to Lionel that posed to be his rival. The film ends with him declaring Rhodes to be his successor and shows the Horsemen a secret entrance to the rest of the society’s headquarters.


THOUGHTS 


The first one was a real good time, so I was already seated when it came to the announcement of this sequel because the creativity was just gonna get bigger from here. I mean the visual effects for things like the disappearing into rain or a stack of cards is one thing, but then the editing and cinematography lock the hell in with the sleight of hand sequence. Even the practicality of someone running into a sudden window was creative. Then having Brian Tyler return to compose kept me onboard as he maintained having another exciting score. While not better than the first, Director Jon M Chu is still able to keep things interesting here because he’s able to teach something just as important along the way. In one way, I learn that you got to know the difference between pride and revenge because the mix can be unforgivable. In a big case of seeing two sides of the coin, Michael Caine was bound to be unforgiving as Arthur losing what he feels entitled to and is willing to take it out on everyone on sight and as a bonus, we get to see Daniel Radcliffe be a true wild card since he chooses to use his technology for the worst intentions without looking back, thus being bound to blow up overnight. I mean it does feel so hysterical that he loses it all so fast his dad quickly neglects him upon defeat. With them setting the standard on how low revenge can take you, seeing the Horsemen work things out show how things can come around once you get a clear conscience. Jesse Eisenberg continued expressing Atlas' arrogance to the point that he kept choosing to make decisions on behalf of the team. He does so because he doesn't want to be held back on his potential and wants to be consistent when making a difference. Once he saw the consequences of working too fast, he was able to take a step back and let everyone do their shtick. I was definitely surprised on not having Henley around due to Isla Fisher being pregnant around the time of production. While she would return for the third movie, Lizzy Caplan was an awesome substitute as Lula because she was more energetic than everyone combined and she gets far more creative with her illusions due to her use of losing a limb or two on sight. I mean I couldn't help laughing every time she did so. Dave Franco was still cool as Jack because he was most patient with the waiting period to take action and patient enough to master hypnotism enough that he can use it another pro. If you can do that, then you hit veteran status as a magician in my opinion. He and Lula hit it off pretty well because they know everything can go smooth as long as they can keep it together, which paid off in the long run. I don't know if they'll still be dating after their New Year's kiss, but I think they'll have fun tricks to come up with together. I even thought it was a delight to get double Woody Harrelson and see him do well as both McKinney brothers. Merritt is still the better half since he does his best in remaining laidback when the going gets rough, but Chase is indeed his complete opposite due to dialing up his greed every time he locks eyes with him. He uses his enthusiasm to make clear he's not to be trusted, thus making it easy for them to figure out how to control down the line. Had that not worked, everything would've backfired. Mark Ruffalo still gets to shine here as Dylan since he is a more mature leader looking out for everyone's best interests, but came to realize better than Arthur that revenge wasn't even worth all the time he spent. He framed Bradley hoping it'd make his dad proud, but he couldn't guarantee it since it didn't bring him back and he took out his anger on the wrong guy to begin with. It's another good twist that Bradley was the Eye's grandmaster because you can't go wrong with Morgan Freeman's common wisdom he's brought to most of his roles at this point, including Bradley. With the common guilt and shame you'd feel losing a friend, it made sense why it was hard for him to ever tell Dylan the rivalry with his dad was staged and felt he could've hated him more than he already did. The fact these two men got to have their closure was another moment that proved forgiveness is never late as long as you look for it. The fact Dylan is given the mantle to be successor gives him the opportunity to officially be content with the past and I hope it really came to fruition for him, otherwise everything he had done would've been all for nothing. There are quite a bunch of things that make me want to keep seeing this movie, but there are still some things that confused me during a rewatch. Like for starters, I can believe Bradley would be allowed to report Lionel’s stunt as a debunker, but why did it look like he was the only reporter? For a public stunt, there should’ve been more people to report it and not just one guy. Moving on, if Dylan didn’t want to keep the guys under the loop for too long, he could’ve messaged them that Lula was Henley’s replacement rather than wait until after she met Daniel separately. It then gets weird that security doesn’t recognize any of three horsemen who had no masks for their disguises. I mean Chase had a better effort ducking his face down when getting the jump on his brother. And once they later reveal themselves, it’s crazy that no security tackled them down once they made the stage. I also can admit it’s on Merritt not checking the peephole before opening the door if he’s a fugitive. If I’m gonna get all the more picky, Walter is so off track saying he’s off the grid when that is totally not true; Still hiding in a penthouse full of electricity is not off grid. Miracles even kick in high with the fact Dylan was not stopped to see Bradley when he’s on the run. Someone from security should’ve recognized him on the news to keep him from moving forward. While I can scratch my head a bunch on how Walter was able to trick Atlas into thinking he is The Eye, I scratched it only harder off of the fact Dylan & Bradley got to score a private jet to Macau rather than a boat. It’s also on Atlas that he didn’t prepare for a metal detector to get the chip out of the building when he could’ve brainstormed with the others. Hell, it’s even a surprise no cameras were in the room as they took it. It’s even off putting for Jack to not try checking if the chip was fake in the given time he had to take it. And if the whole broadcast was worldwide, it feels sto stupid that Walter and Arthur didn’t watch any tv on their private jet to London of what was going on. If you can ignore these issues however, then you can still appreciate the levels of creative fun that comes from Now You See Me 2. If you still have a kick out of magic thanks to the first movie, then it’s a no brainer you’ll enjoy this sequel as well.