"Now You See Me 2" is directed by Jon M. Chu, and features an ensemble cast that is mostly the same from the first film back in 2013 with Jesse Eisenberg, Dave Franco, Woody Harrelson, Morgan Freeman, Mark Ruffalo, and introduces Lizzy Caplan as one of the new horsemen and Daniel Radcliffe as the main antagonist. I was a fan of the first "Now You See Me", which was about four magicians who are brought together by an unknown leader to pull off the greatest magic trick ever.
The first film wasn't the greatest film ever made, but it was a lot of fun. It asked you to suspend some disbelief, and the plot was a little silly, but the film remained enjoyable because of the chemistry between the Four Horsemen and the non-stop mindless fun of the movie. Unfortunately, the second act of the "Now You See Me" franchise completely fails to dazzle.
As I said before, the first film asks you to suspend a little disbelief in order to enjoy it, but it doesn't overwhelm you with its absurdity. The second installment almost always asks you to suspend disbelief, and I had a very hard time believing most of the things they were doing were possible, and a lot of the tricks that I did believe were possible were tricks that I saw in the first movie, and that really took me out of it from the beginning.
Another element of this movie that really disappointed me was that there is little to no sign of fun to be had anywhere. The first film didn't take itself too incredibly seriously, and realized that it was a little ridiculous, so they made it as action packed and exciting as possible. This movie tends to take itself way more seriously, and it leaves almost no room for any fun. I can remember 2 scenes in the movie that I thought, "Ok, that was pretty cool". Literally just two, and one of them proves to be almost completely pointless once you reach the ending. The action in this movie also kind of sucks, mostly in the way it is shot. There were a couple times during the movie that I had no idea what was going on, and not in the cool, sleight-of-hand kind of way. Lastly, the plan by Daniel Radcliffe's character is pretty stupid. I won't spoil it, but it is just a terrible plan. Radcliffe's performance itself isn't too bad, in fact, everyone plays their part pretty well, but they are given nothing to work with in terms of script.
All in all, I really did not enjoy myself during this movie, which is a shame because the first film really was an entertaining movie and this had some potential to be a fun franchise, but the second act is a step in the wrong direction. "Now You See Me 2" is a poorly written, poorly directed, over the top movie with not very much entertainment to be had. You can see it and decide for yourself, but I just honestly can't recommend it.
Final Grade: D-
