I only saw the first Now You See Me (1) grudgingly, which is to say, on a plane. It’s amazing what you can get me to watch when I’m hurtling through space in a glorified tin 
can. Anything to distract myself, even Jesse Eisenberg doing “magic.”
To be honest, I hate magic. I hate the spectacle and the artifice and the hammy, tan people who “perform” it. I hate it. I HATE hate it, the way I hate Nazis and speeding tickets and being tricked into eating vegetables. I have to remind myself, with a shock, that some people actually pay to see magic, while I would gladly pay to not see it. I’d rather not even walk by a street magician, if I can help it. But I’m half-willing to give it a go in the movies because while I also hate Nazis, I concede that some fairly wonderful movies have been made containing them. So I don’t rule Now You See Me out just because it has magic. Or just because it has Jesse Eisenberg, who is quickly ascending my list of things to avoid.
Jesse Eisenberg is joined by 3 other magicians (including a token girl!) to form the “4 horsemen” – the Robinhoods of the magic scene, they spent the first movie stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. You can’t do that without consequences, so they’ve been in hiding this past year and are only revealing themselves in the sequel when their magical governing body, the Eye, calls on them to do so – for a very good cause, I’m sure.
Safe to say a sequel to this blip of filmdom is one trick I never saw coming, unlike all the tricks in the film, which I saw from a mile away. There is no “magic” is Now You See Me 2, which is a real tragedy in this renaissance of practical effects, unless you count the
“magic” of CGI. Or the magic of marketing, I suppose. Definitely not the magic of film making, because this guy was seemingly made in a vacuum of personality. There is no fun in watching card tricks when you know the cards were added digitally, after the fact. And the tricks are not replicable in the real world, so Now You See Me 2 is just another CGI-bloated entry into the super hero genre, only these heroes are super lame and the costumes even lamer (though Eisenberg’s sporting a more Lex Luther-appropriate hairstyle than he did in Batman v. Superman).
But the greatest crime this film commits is its end. We, the audience, have spent 2 hours watching the 4 horsemen play tricks on their audiences, their enemies, their government, and each other. Now they seek to play one on us, and a two minute monologue discredits everything that’s come before and tells us we’ve been played for fools and what we thought was happening really wasn’t. Gotcha! Except the script does absolutely nothing to earn this. To set this up, a script has to leave breadcrumbs, it has to set it up, carefully, craftilly, but dutifully. Or else it’s total baloney. And this, my friends, was grade F deli meat, straight from Oscar Mayer himself. It’s like me suddenly telling you that I’ve been writing a Finding Dory review this whole time…TADA!
What do you mean you’re not convinced? I said ta-da, dammit. What more do you want? A viable story? Some forethought? Common sense? I mean – what do you expect here? This isn’t magic. It’s just a little trickery, and you can either buy in or opt out. It’s up to you.
ASSHOLES WATCHING MOVIES 
I feel tricked Jay. Boo.
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I want to see this movie 🙂
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The first one was entertaining. That’s all I’m hoping for out of this one when I see it. Guess that means I’ll opt in, at some point (not going to the theater to see this).
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I was weary of the first one (so weary that I still haven’t seen it), so I’m likely gonna catch up on them both at some point after I’ve caught Pacific Rim 2, I’d imagine.
As for magic, I don’t like magicians / illusionists. It’s all a bit fake tan, white smiles and coattails. That said, I find early magicians / illusionists like Carter, Keller and Houdini absolutely fascinating. A completely different game back then, I guess.
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Definitely see the first first – I HAD seen it and I was still lost.
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Hahaha Jay your too funny. And here I thought I was the only person who truly hates magic;)! I’ll cross over to the other side of where ever I am, to avoid the shit !! And I’ll do the same for this movie, lol, I wasn’t even going to read this since I’m on my phone , but as soon as I got to the what 3rd sentence and saw how you also hated the stuff., well I knew you’d have me in stitches () thanks
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I think we must be spirit sisters!
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Lol no kidding
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Ah goddamn it, they came up with another hamfisted ending again?! That’s what killed the first one for me. The twist was so ludicrous I laughed out loud, hard, for several minutes, in a probably half-packed theater. The movie lost all credibility when Mark Ruffalo turned out to be a baddie. I wonder what happens now. . .
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Well, the way you summed up the first….oh my god, it’s brilliant knowing how you could also sum up the second! Yeah, you’ll hate it.
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Nope I don’t like magic either, it pisses me off if I can’t tell how it’s done, and pisses me off if I can. Finding Dory though……. can’t wait! 🙂
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NOt too much longer on the fish – I hope it comes out for you the same as it does for us – this weekend!
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Fingers xt!
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I think we are very much on the same page about this one! 🙂
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It truly is amazing what I will watch on an airplane. This is why I always need to have my Kindle. I don’t want to get sucked into something like this.
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I know. I can trace so much of my dubious movie watching back to an airplane. If there’s something I actually want to see I feel suspicious!
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Yes! So true!
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I want to see this movie😭 i was chosen the conjuring 2
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OH, did you like it? I was too chicken!
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Really like it
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You didn’t have me when you said Jesse Eisenberg:) there is something about this brat I can’t stand. I’m ok with magicians but he irritates me.
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Me too!
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You are very funny, Jay! 😀
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The first movie was surprisingly decent, but I won’t see this one in theaters. I’l wait for DVD like I did the first.
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Glad I avoided this one then. The first movie irritated me to no end, so I had a feeling the sequel would be worse. I’m not fond of Jesse Eisenberg either Jay, so that certainly doesn’t help.
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Good call. The second is definitely more irritating.
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I just read Entertainment Weekly’s review of this movie. They said 2 was better than 1, but they didn’t exactly rave about it.
I used to be fascinated by magic, but when I learned that I’d have to become a magician to learn how they did the tricks, I had to walk away. Because, I always want to know how it’s all done (and not knowing just makes me crazy).
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My grandmother once bought me an Idiot’s Guide to Magic but I was too insulted to get into it.
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I liked the first one but didn’t see much point in a sequel. Plus why did they get rid of Isla Fisher and keep all the boys. I’ll tell you why! Bullshit. That’s why and I like Lizzy Caplan but c’mon couldn’t switch out Dave Franco for The Rock?
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