Now You See Me 2 (2016)

Directed by: Jon M. Chu

Written by: Ed Solomon, Pete Chiarelli (story), Boaz Yakin (characters), & Edward Ricourt (characters)

Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, & Lizzy Caplan






The four horsemen are back!  Minus one horsewoman and an addition of one to replace Isla Fisher's character Henley Reeves.  Reason being for the absence of Fisher is that she was pregnant in real life!  Congrats!

In this sequel, Atlas (Eisenberg), Merritt (Harrelson), and Wilder (Franco) have to deal with a power issue in the group as well as their new horsemen, Lula (Caplan), who is quite different from Henley.  As Atlas struggles with not being the leader of their group, the four horsemen get taken on a wild ride by none other than Walter Mabry (Daniel Radcliffe), who is supposed to be dead.  Walter hires the horsemen to steal a chip that can control every computer in the world.  But the horsemen have their own plans.

What I liked about this film, other than the amazing magic tricks, is the new character Lula as well as how in the beginning of the film, there is a brief reminder as to what happened in the first film.  But, it is probably best to watch the first film before watching this one even with the prologue because there are some aspects of what happened in the first film that are not mentioned in the second's intro that are important.

Caplan's character Lula is fantastic and eases the tension between the all boys' club.  She adds a sense of humor that would otherwise not be there despite Harrelson's and Franco's attempts.  So whoever thought of her is a genius.

There were a few camera shots that bugged me regarding a kidnapping.  I won't say who was kidnapped.  They tried to do it from the kidnappee's point of view (POV) and it was semi-successful. They should have just let the scene be in third person since it did not add anything or take away anything from having it be in POV.

Other than that, the film is entertaining and is clear about the intentions of all the characters.  Plus it finally ties up some loose ends that were in the previous film.  4 popcorns.