Now You See Me 2 (2016)

Now You See Me 2

• I’ll come out and say it, I think this is better than the first film, and I also liked it more. That’s probably an unpopular opinion, but I don’t care. I think it’s more dumb than the first, but that’s what increases its enjoyability. The story is more cohesive than the first, though a lot of things still don’t make sense. There’s plenty of weird jumps and transitions between acts, so the plot progression feels very goofy, like the first. However, I think it’s more entertaining because you’re already familiar with the characters, so you don’t have to spend time learning everyone. After the opening scene, you jump right into the story and go full force until the end. The stakes are bigger, which is fun, and there’s  a new villain, while still bringing back some faces from the first. Obviously the main cast returns, except for Isla Fisher. I wasn’t a huge fan of her character anyways, but I was a little skeptical about bringing in a character to replace her. However, Lula grew on me, and I ended up thinking she was an upgrade from Henley. The performances were all okay, with no huge improvement from the first film. Most everyone is still fun to watch, but it’s nothing we haven’t seen before. Lastly, all the magic and illusion scenes were freaking epic, especially the security room and the airplane. The security room scene alone should live in film history infamy. All the magic scenes were shot so well, with some VFX adding some extra smoothness to make everything more eye pleasing and natural. Overall, this is a small step up from the first, and makes me super excited for the third installment. I would recommend this to all crime/thriller fans, just make sure to obviously see the first one. This film is officially Berry Approved, so go watch it now!