Mini Film Review – Now You See Me 2

Yesterday I watched Now You See Me 2; and it was pretty good! Directed by Jon M. Chu, and starring Mark Ruffalo, Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson and Lizzy Caplan; Now You See Me 2 is a heist film where the magicians from the previous film now have to clear their names as someone is out for revenge! It was a fun and enjoyable film, carrying the spectacle of large magic performances as seen in the previous installment, whilst also creating a plot featuring a cool stellar and surprising cast, whilst also featuring twists and turns before leading to a spectacular conclusion! But, it does have a few issues. The one thing that was cool in the presentation of the previous film, was that the focus was on the FBI agents trying to get to grips with the heists that the Four Horsemen were pulling off. The magicians weren’t the stars of the film in that respect, they were more ironically being the assistants to the film’s leaders. This time around though it was more of an equal footing, so that magic was lost. There was magic in this too as the secrets of their tricks were exposed along the way, showing a dual side to the first film’s coin. Here though, it was more done on the fly, and whilst the big reveals sort of all bring it back home, we no longer have the focus on the more interesting viewpoints or characters. It just sort of felt a little off, and there was no magic formula that made the first film so unique. Don’t get me wrong I really enjoyed this entry, but it wasn’t as fun a show as the great spectacular that was shown before…or perhaps this film is a slight of hand trick, leading up to a more than spectacular third entry? Just a thought!