Slick, Mindless Fun
"Now you see me, now you don't," is the perfect way to describe this magician caper franchise. The Now You See Me films entertain and engage while you've got your eye on them, but look away and they'll be gone from your mind in a flash. The first film followed the Robin Hood stage magic group the Four Horsemen as they robbed the rich and criminal and gave to the disadvantaged while being pursued by an FBI agent. The sequel sees the Horsemen reemerge as the secret magician society the Eye assigns them to pursue further do-gooding theft as the men they wronged in the first film plot revenge.
Now You See Me 2 (NYSM2) is written by Ed Solomon, co-writer of the original, and directed by Jon M. Chu, taking the reins from Louis Leterrier. Like its predecessor, NYSM2 has a twisty plot filled with illusions both on stage and off as hypnosis, slight of hand and flat out trickery are used to fool the characters and audience alike. Both films feature magic that is often not possible, at least not to my untrained eye, but where the the first film sagged, Chu keeps his installment moving at such a clip that the narrative and logical absurdities fly past just fast enough to keep you from wanting to question them.
The "magic" on display this time is pretty fun to watch, particularly as it gets more ludicrous. Though honest to God craft from the magicians is appreciated, the Horseman have obtained the kind of superstar status one expects from Taylor Swift, so performing acts like a simple shell game doesn't always match the grandiosity the film gives its heroes. The standout set piece is an extended slight of hand trick that defies the laws of physics: the Horsemen fling a playing card containing a stolen computer chip around a lab during an protracted pat-down by security guards. The card soars around the room, landing in hats, sticking to shoes, and sliding around the Horsemen's hands with such aerodynamic and textural dexterity you'd think it was remote controlled if it wasn't almost completely CGI.
What Chu manages with that sequence and with most of the film's other scenes is a lightness that makes the fakery more fun than the real thing. Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, and a particularly spunky Lizzy Caplan all appear to be having fun interjecting their Horsemen capers with enhanced magic, while Mark Ruffalo (playing an FBI agent/formerly secret Horseman) and Morgan Freeman bring the little gravitas needed for their arc to work. Harrelson channels a Stepford Wives take on his True Detective partner Matthew McConaughey to play a villainous twin brother with blindingly white teeth, and Daniel Radcliffe pokes fun at his own boy wizard image by playing a baddie inept at magic but brilliant with computers.
If Ocean's Eleven is the smart, breezy heist franchise, Now You See Me is the dumber imitation infused with more credibility-testing twists and illusions, yet it still manages to pull off many of the same tricks. Its ensemble is game, and its surface level flash is enough to entertain without irritation. The legacy of Now You See Me 2 is likely to be as a pleasant, mindless HBO staple, and sometimes that's all a film needs to be.