Now You See Me 2 – A trick too far

The original ‘Now You See Me’ film was an incredibly enjoyable affair.  It was possibly one of the finest examples of how, if you were willing to suspend your disbelief to epic levels, you really could have a great time watching it.  It was Hollywood glitz and popcorn-munching fun all the way through.  The – A-list – cast was perfect and played off each other brilliantly, depicting a quartet of modern day Robin Hood-style magicians who stole from the rich and corrupted through the use of their dazzling illusions and, in turn, gave back to the poor.  I suppose its success basically guaranteed a sequel would be greenlit.  And, where I do give the film credit for doing its best to follow-on closely from the events in the first outing, this time round it’s just too unbelievable to be convincing – no matter how hard you try to suspend your disbelief.

I really wanted to like this film – and I guess I did.  There were plenty of neat moments here and there, it’s just I wanted to like it a LOT.  And I didn’t.  The story picks up a little while after the events of the first one and the most noticeable difference for me was the fact that Isla Fisher hasn’t returned this time round.  She’s therefore instantly replaced by another female magician who slots into the team a little too well.  Then we get to the meat of the story where the twists and turns start to overtake general common sense and credibility.

The rest of the cast return, but the main newcomer is Daniel Radcliffe who entraps the magicians in an attempt to use their collective skills to steal something for him.  And, as I mentioned, the ‘magic’ set-pieces are indeed well-filmed and cool to watch.  However, the story just doesn’t add up.  One of the main complaints from the first one was the ‘twist’ which left some viewers feeling a little short-changed.  Here, the film tries to ‘out-twist’ the original by taking the story in all sorts of directions which leave you truly confused as to who is on who’s side and who is trying to double-cross who.

I know that part of the fun with watching magicians perform is trying to guess how the trick is done.  With the first film you could just about believe that the feats they carry out could just about be actually real if all the circumstances were just right.  In the sequel, everything feels a little cheap as you naturally try to predict how they accomplish these feats, only to find out that the ways they do them are tantamount impossible.

Overall, it’s an enjoyable enough film, but it does try to be a little too clever for its own good and therefore ends up being too unbelievable to be credible.

6/10 Should probably keep you awake if Freddy Krueger was haunting your nights