Movie Blog Post: NOW YOU SEE ME 2

The Four Horsemen Return for More Robin Hood-esque Magical Hijinx

By Tinsel & Tine Editor, Le Anne Lindsay

It’s a year later and three of the Four Horsemen are still fugitives – Magician (J Daniel Atlas /Jesse Eisenberg), Mentalist (Merritt McKinney/Woody Harrelson) sleight-of-hander (Jack Wilder/Dave Franco) Isla Fisher was pregnant at the time of filming and declined to reprise her role as Illusionist Henley Reeves. There’s a little talk of Daniel being hurt by Henley’s departure, romantically, but otherwise, her leave taking is not part of the plot. Lula (Lizzy Caplan) steps into Fisher’s shoes easily. Although, the natural inclination is to pair the only girl in the group with one of the guys, I’d prefer she didn’t develop an attraction to Jack Wilder. I think they should just all be separate, but equal and have romances outside the group.

Jack
Wilder (Dave Franco, far left), Lula (Lizzy Caplan, center left), J.
Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg, center right) and Merritt McKinney (Woody
Harrelson, far right) in NOW YOU SEE ME 2.

At the end of Now You See Me (click for T&T post) most of us were surprised to find out CIA agent Dylan Rhodes/Mark Ruffalo) was not a bumbling fool, mystified and stumped but this magical group of thieves, but rather was one of them. Now with a new CIA deputy director to report to (Sanaa Lathan) he’s finding it increasingly difficult to keep his investigative cover, while readying the horsemen for their next mission. No mention is made of what became of his romance with fellow agent (Alma Dray/ Mélanie Laurent).

I forgot at the end of Now You See Me magic debunker (Thaddeus Bradley/Morgan Freeman) was incarcerated, now he’s seeking revenge from behind bars.

Bottom line: The plot involving tech weasel (Walter Mabry/Daniel Radcliffe) is a little hard to keep straight and Harrelson playing his evil twin is just dumb, but otherwise Director Jon M. Chu, (Step Up movies) has given us a fun summer flick. The first movie had a bit more pizzazz and showmanship – I’d classify it as a con artist movie, those tend to center on the special qualities of the characters. “Now You See Me 2” is more a heist movie, which centers on plans and execution. Whether you’ll enjoy this one kinda depends on your genre preference.

Check out this little clip of David Copperfield, Magic Consultant for both movies, talk about his involvement: