
Joining the villains is Merritt’s fey twin brother, Chase (Brick Patrick). As Walter observes, however, “In a world of surveillance, the only real value is in not being seen.”įortunately, the circuit is flat and the dimensions of a playing card, and can easily be concealed and flipped around in the film’s brilliantly choreographed set piece. This comes as a bit of a shock, if only because the Horsemen thought Walter, who is being backed by their former manager, billionaire capitalist Arthur Tressler (Michael Caine), was dead. Walter wants them to steal “the stick” from a massive, well-guarded vault. They find themselves kidnapped, taken to Macau and delivered into the hands of smirking evil genius Walter Mabry (Daniel Radcliffe).

One of the Horsemen’s quick escapes, meanwhile, has similar consequences. He breaks Thaddeus out of prison just to take some form of revenge on him. He saw his escape-artist father drown in a botched stunt in 1984, and he somehow blames Thaddeus, who was there, for his dad’s death. This time, FBI agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo), who’s chasing down the Horsemen but is another of their secret pals, has a back story. She replaces Isla Fisher’s Henley, the escape artist of the original. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg) skilled at both illusions and card tricks, hypnotist Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson) and sleight-of-hand artist Jack Wilder (Dave Franco), joined by fast-talking illusionist Lula (Lizzy Caplan). But it’s probably acceptable for older adolescents. Language issues push this sequel toward adult territory. Since the magicians are all performers, the big reveal occurs in front of a cheering worldwide audience.
#Now you see me rating series#
The densely constructed plot with rat-a-tat dialogue is based on a series of elaborate con games involving hypnotism, card manipulation, illusions, escape tricks and a great deal of technology.Īll of this leads to a gigantic sting involving a computer circuit known as “the stick,” which can de-encrypt any system into which it’s plugged. That’s fine, although it does give this otherwise compelling, intelligent follow-up to the 2013 original the slight cast of a Scooby-Doo cartoon.Įxplaining all the gears and clockwork afterward just makes everything longer. The point is to make these characters relatable by their accomplishment of very human stunts, even if their trademark spectacles are enhanced by complicated special effects. Chu and screenwriter Ed Solomon are anxious for the audience not to miss any of their cleverness and what it signifies. On top of that, all the tricks performed by the quartet are deconstructed in great detail, as if director Jon M.

We know this because Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman), the magic debunker and secret friend of the versatile crime-fighting “Four Horsemen” - the central ensemble of this franchise - invokes it both at the beginning and the end of the film.
#Now you see me rating code#
Such, it seems, is the code magicians live by. It concerns being true to yourself while not always believing in what you see. NEW YORK (CNS) - There’s a moral underlying the magic-themed thriller “Now You See Me 2” (Summit).
