The Horsemen are forced to steal a microchip for a criminal
genius, just as they are outed to the world and forced into hiding. ACTION
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Now You See Me 2 (2016)Directed by Jon M. Chu
Written by Ed Solomon Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Lizzy Caplan, Morgan Freeman, Daniel Radcliffe, Michael Caine, Sanaa Lathan, Jay Chou, Tsai Chin Sequel to 2013's Now You See Me |
Now You See Me was a neat movie, but mainly because of its impossible-to-predict final twist. If you take that away, the first film is intriguing, but nothing special. That's mainly the case with Now You See Me 2. This is a film that never needed to be made. The story was done at the end of the first one. This is a pure cash grab that has almost none of the secretive nature and epic tricks that made this series so cool and inventive. The performances are mostly phoned-in and the screenplay feels so insincere. It truly feels like the filmmakers deliberately ignored everything they did right the first time around.
As I said before, the first one ultimately worked because of its third act twist. Somehow, somebody believed that multiplying the amount of twists by ten would be a better idea for the sequel. Now You See Me 2 features a number of attempted twists that never feel as smart or well-written as the first one and by the time they get around to trying to explain this labyrinth of poor story structure, it's almost impossible to wrap your brain around the whole thing. We never get any explanation of the Eye or who they are, apart from some confusing implications, and Morgan Freeman's skeptic character Thaddeus Bradley is almost like a different person. None of who he was built up to be in the first movie is here, which just adds to the many problems surrounding this misadventure which no doubt killed the franchise at part two. Now You See Me 2 relies on exciting visuals and adoration for the first film to convince viewers that this is worth their time. While I did enjoy the set up and it was a good idea to have a villain this time, the execution was poorly conceived. It has a few moments of potential, but they are few and far between. Overall, Now You See Me 2 is way more of a miss than a hit. No amount of magic can resurrect this franchise from the production hell it now finds itself in. |