The first Now You See Me was a dull, and preposterous affair that felt like an adult telling you and your friends that you couldn’t have fun. Here’s a movie about a group of people that use “magic tricks” to rob banks while laughing at the authorities for it. That sounds awesome. The problem? The movie doesn’t work if it’s missing a few pieces. The characters were likable enough, but it almost seemed like it was all being played too straight, killing whatever energy that the film might have otherwise had. Now You See Me 2 is much more preposterous than the first one, but it has the good sense to build in a mechanic to make sure that all of it is fun. The great idea? Add an actual audience POV character. The whole point of the first Now You See Me’s characters was that they were continuously ahead of the audience in everything that happened. Sure, that could cause us to marvel at their achievements, but it also introduces the problem of sympathy. We as an audience are always looking up at the characters, but never really emotionally connect with them so the engagement factor of the film drops substantially. Sure, it does cover up the stupidity of the events of that movie by shielding us from them, but it’s boring no matter how much tension that film tried to drudge up. Most of the characters in Now You See Me 2 act the same way, but one doesn’t. Lizzy Caplan's new Lula character is from frame one the antivirus to that problem. She’s over the top and weird in a way that most female characters are not allowed to be, she calls out just how incredibly stupid all of this is and acts as the almost capable but incapable person that maybe one of the audience members might be on the team. That’s at least a tangible connection which allows us to sit back and actually buy into the nonsense. That all said it is still all nonsense. The story picks up with the Horsemen living in hiding, then being exposed, and then having to deal with the punches as they come. The whole story seems tailored to bring us to each new let’s use “magic” to be awesome moment, and then promptly gets going to the next. The whole thing’s moving so quickly that it almost forgets to give us the moment of betrayal that a villain would theoretically need to create to give substance and emotion to the entire last act of the movie. It only barely explains the motivations of such villain, and that’s surprising seeing how this movie seems to only be about explaining the magic tricks that we are gawking at. It makes one wonder what this series would look like if the perspective were shifted more towards the almost now pointless cops watching in awe, like the rest of us, four master criminals use traditional magic tricks to avert them. There might be real magic in that. But that’s a discussion for another time. Look at the movie you have, not the one you want. Now You See Me 2 is much more fun than the first and prompts much more audience engagement. That seemed to be the goal, and they’ve at least succeeded at that. I give Now You See Me 2 a 6 out of 10 .
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December 2017
CategoriesAuthorHello welcome to FilmAnalyst. My name is Stephen Tronicek, and I really like movies. This is a way to get my opinions out to people. Thank you for visiting. |