Now You See Me 2 is a rather unimaginative title, isn’t it? Ever since the sequel to 2013’s dopey, supremely entertaining magician-thieves movie was announced, Twitter and the like have been full of fun title ideas for a second caper—Now You Don’t being the most obvious one, though I suppose it’s not the most marketable. The point is, just slapping a “2” on the end of the title suggests a dull, perfunctory sort of sequel, one without much wit or imagination. Luckily, the worst thing about Now You See Me 2 may be its name: the film itself is a game, goofy improvement on the original.
The Now You See Me movies—part of what I hope is an expanding Now You See MeCinematic Universe—hinge on two tenuous assertions: that magic and its practitioners are cool, and that the general public cares about it. Which, of course, are ludicrous suppositions. But Now You See Me has fun with an absurd alternate world where both those things aren't preposterous—where Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson lead a troupe of flashy stage magicians who double as Robin Hood-ing thieves, adored by a supportive public and pursued by square, inept law enforcement.
The first Now You See Me, quick and surprising and a little dumb, was about a scheme to bring down a malevolent financier. A 99 percent story told in arch gloss, the film had a tinge of political righteousness to it, silly as it was. Now You See Me 2 is more navel-gazing, focused entirely on the magicians (Eisenberg, Harrelson, Dave Franco, and Lizzy Caplan—replacing, y’know, the other girl, played by Isla Fisher) trying to evade capture while contending with shadowy forces out to destroy them. The sequel doesn’t have any real socio-economic point to it, it’s just all the fun parts of the first movie amped up. Which is fine! A movie that knows what it is and enjoys itself without putting on airs is much appreciated in these turgid movie times.
Explaining the plot of Now You See Me 2 would be a pointless endeavor. Just know that it involves the gang traveling to Macau, where they do some fancy handwork with a playing card in a joyous heist scene that only goes on about two minutes too long, and are subjected to the dark machinations of a chipper British villain played with élan by none other than Daniel Radcliffe, looking handsome and scruffy and only half-convincingly evil. I suppose there’s a certain winking irony to the boy wizard now playing a magician-obsessed man, but to its credit Now You See Me 2 doesn’t make any ham-handed nods toward that.
Instead it just bounces along, getting Mark Ruffalo and Morgan Freeman into the mix, as sleights of hand and other deceptions pile up and the story corkscrews toward a big London finale. Apparently, the people of that fair city all want to spend their New Year’s Eve watching a bunch of Americans do street magic. (I don’t buy it in the real world, but in the N.Y.S.M.C.U.? Sure!) Caplan is a worthy addition to this slick and confident cast, though I do wish there were a few more women characters involved to help balance things out. The movie makes reference to Caplan’s role as “the girl,” but a handful of ironic jokes doesn’t make up for a gaping gender disparity.
There’s also a limit, it turns out, to how much fake magic I’m willing to tolerate, as parts of the London finale are so over the top—like, Ocean’s 13 levels of implausible—that the movie strains even the most generous interpretations of logic, physics, etc. Director Jon M. Chu,the visionary mind behind two Step Up movies and the Justin Bieber documentary Never Say Never, stages these grand illusions compellingly—but ultimately the mechanics don’t add up, and the movie loses some of its bite when it can’t rationalize its tricks. Still, it’s a giddy, engaging, throwaway summer diversion, the perfect show to be distracted by while the concession stand robs you of $20.
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