I had forgotten how much I genuinely disliked the original NOW YOU SEE ME until I watched this overblown, all-flash, no-substance sequel. First of all, I wholeheartedly reject the idea that a movie about master magicians has so much clearly CG magic in it. I don’t care what the filmmakers or actors say about the use of practical magic in this production, the tricks that are meant to dazzle us are fake. And what in any realm is dazzling magic done with computers pretending to be real? Second, I reject the film’s “the whole world is watching” premise. What is this based on? What magicians (or any one celebrity, for that matter) has the whole world watching live anything they do, especially magic? Pulling back even further, third, I reject the idea that the Four Horsemen are folk heroes to the masses. Nothing that has come before nor anything that happens in this movie leads me to believe that these tricksters would be so beloved in the internet age. The haters would be out in force, and with good reason.
If you’re watching a film and you can’t even buy into its core premises, there’s a major problem, and NOW YOU SEE ME 2 has many, many problems. I feel like the only premise about this franchise that makes sense is that some sparks might actually happen by putting this many interesting actors in the same room together. Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco and Lizzy Caplan (stepping in for Isla Fisher, who escaped with her dignity) are the returned Horsemen, who plan to use their skills to take down an off-the-grid tech giant (Daniel Radcliffe), who shockingly is not a nice fellow and threatens them if they don’t pull off a heist on his behalf. Also floating around is Mark Ruffalo’s FBI Agent Rhodes, who is pretending to continue his search for the Horsemen but is, in fact, aiding and abetting them.
In addition, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine return as the bad guys from the first film, and still major instigators. I guess the big switcheroo in part two is that the Horsemen are the ones being played, and once they figure that out, they have to find a way to expose whomever the master manipulator is without that person/persons realizing it. I think… Actually, NOW YOU SEE ME 2’s plot folds over on itself to such a degree and relies so much on lingering questions (that no one was actually asking) from the first convoluted film that I gave up trying to unwrap everything and just counted down the minutes until the big finale was over and done with. It doesn’t help that an epilogue further complicates and confuses the situation.
A look at director Jon M. Chu’s previous credits made me shudder—two STEP UP movies, G.I. JOE: RETALIATION, two Justin Bieber docs, and last year’s monster hit, JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS. This man has made a career of making slick, flashy films with little or no substance. And although I didn’t think it was possible make a shallower film than NOW YOU SEE ME, I’ve been proven wrong.
In the spirit of always looking for the good in a sea of bad, I suppose I learned something about how good actors behave in such a terrible film. Hell, just to make it interesting for himself, Harrelson plays his original character and that guy’s evil twin brother; I wish I were making that up. But he seems to be enjoying himself, so we’ll let him have this one. Caplan is always a welcome addition to any cast. She has a wit and intelligence that at least adds those qualities to this extraordinarily stupid movie. As for the rest of the actors, I just see them faking enthusiasm and collecting carefully negotiated paychecks. Even the addition of Jay Chou (THE GREEN HORNET) as the co-owner of one of the oldest magic shops in the world can’t help save this empty-headed endeavor.
With a screenplay by Ed Solomon, NOW YOU SEE ME 2 is an exercise in wasted talent on a massive scale. You often hear the question about many recent sequels, “Who was asking for a follow-up to that?” but the truth was, the first film was a modest hit three years ago. I’m not a fan of equating box office to the quality of a film, but there was some call for this film from a public that I’m fairly certain will reject this pompous sequel that is so pleased with itself, you want to punch it in the throat. If there was a minute of this film that I wasn’t in agony while watching, I’ve forgotten it. This will easily go down as one of the most unpleasant times I’ve had in the theater in 2016. Enjoy!
