Directed bx Jon M. Chu (G.I. Joe: Retaliation; Step Up 2: The Streets) and starring Jesse Eisenberg (Now You See Me; The Social Network; The Village), Woody Harrelson (Now You See Me; No Country for Old Men, The Hunger Games, Friends With Benefits), Dave Franco (Now You See Me; 21 Jump Street; Warm Bodies; The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud), Mark Ruffalo (Now You See Me; The Avengers, Shutter Island, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), Lizzy Caplan (127 Hours; Cloverfield; The Interview; Mean Girls), Morgan Freeman (Now You See Me; The Shawshank Redemption, Driving Miss Daisy, The Dark Knight Rises), Michael Caine (Now You See Me; The Dark Knight, Children of Men, Harry Brown, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) and Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter...; Victor Frankenstein; What If; The Woman in Black).
This sequel, like many sequels, attempts not only to recreate the originality of the first but to be bigger and better. While it is indeed longer, it feels longer too, which is not really a good sign. The first contained a number of significant illusions / stunts that had audiences eating out of the plams of their hands; this sequel is also based on their adultation cum notoriety, but the plot does not allow them to complete their illusions, being caught on the back foot... In many ways it's lke a modern day counter-espionage film.
Here, Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) team up with new Horseman Lulu (Lizzy Caplan). Together with FBI agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) - no surprises for the audience this time out on whose side he is on - they regroup, with Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman) in prison, in true sequel style. However, on their return to the stage for another massive illusion, the tables are turned and their show is hijacked, and so are they. The Four Horsemen have disappeared and Rhodes visits Bradley for help, despite having put him behind bars.
The action takes the Four Hoursemen and the audience to Macau where they come across tech prodigy Walter Mabry (Daniel Radcliffe), son of Arthur Tressler (Michael Caine), who wants to stay hidden from the world yet wants to obtain a new, all-conquering computer chip which enables access to any computer, anywhere. This is the basic premise of the film, and he persuades the Four Horsemen to do his dirty work for him. But who is working for who, and who is double-crossing who?
The sequel is predictable in that the twists are expected, with the magic of the first gone. I wonder if Now You See Me 3, also to be directed by Jon M. Chu, will be any different?
