Now You See Me 2 is a perfectly wrapped box of absurdity – REVIEW

A CGI fest show Now You See Me 2 has little to nothing to offer in this absurd sequel

The Step Up 3 director takes on the next instalment of the Now You See Me universe. The film stars Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo and Morgan Freeman. Now You See Me 2 picks up 1 year after the events of the first with the Four Horsemen having to basically do the exact same thing they did in the first one.

This movie does a have a high amount of nonsense just like the first movie, but it takes it to a whole other level. I could forgive the first one because it was a good popcorn movie and it wasn’t trying to be something else. Here, Now You See Me 2 tries to take its self too seriously and while some of it was entertaining, almost none of it was believable. The “magic tricks” are just CGI filled action scenes that don’t remotely show continuity.

Even with thrills and amusement, the action scenes feel too far fetch. The movie is reaching for stress filled moments and it does surprisingly succeed for the most part. However, they never feel grounded in reality and that makes a major problem. When you think about it one second, you realize that the whole premise doesn’t make any sense and therefore, what you are witnessing is but a big disappointing illusion.

Mark Ruffalo as Dylan Rhodes

As for the characters, The Four Horsemen are just really not interesting. Everything they do is just so absurd that every time danger arrives, you’re not at all nervous. Most of it comes from the fact that they seem like super powered individual that have no real human characteristics. Lizzy Caplan’s Lula is the new addition to the Four Horsemen but the movie never gives you a reason to root for her. Most of her lines are terrible and the movie sets her up to be an annoying punch line sidekick. Speaking of annoying characters, Woody Harrelson’s twin is one of the most annoying character I’ve seen on film in while. The only characters that you get invested in are Mark Ruffalo’s Dylan and Morgan Freeman’s Thaddeus. They have a back story which makes the audience care about them and what may happen to them.

3 Four Horsemen members

A mystery is only as good as its ending and by those standards Now You See Me 2 is in trouble. The movie finishes like a perfectly wrapped box where characters need explain to the audience how every magic trick was done. If a movie needs to explain its ending in details then chances are that it failed. Even after the explanation, the so-called “magic tricks” don’t make sense at all. Nothing in the movie makes sense and at the end of the film, the movie doesn’t feel cohesive.

Nonsensical and illogical, Now You See Me 2 ends up being a mindless movie trying so hard to be an intricate and complex thriller. I will give it this, some scenes, while being complete nonsense, did awaken some stress but that was quickly put back to rest by the next scenes. Even Mark Ruffalo nor Morgan Freeman can save this unbelievable mess and I doubt even hypnosis could make people say they enjoyed Now You See Me 2.