Movie review: Now You See Me 2

I LOVED seeing "Now You See Me" (Part 1). I was very thrilled to hear that there would be a part 2. I thought "Now You See Me" was original, suprising and had a great cast. I was happy to see many of the orginal cast would return for part 2. So far so good. I checked out the schedules of the cinemas close to us, we picked a date and decided to go. The evening before I decided to watch the trailer. That was a bit disappointing. The trailer didn't tell all that much. It was quite chaotic, I couldn't make up the story out of it.  It was hard to know what to expect. (I admit, trailers are always tricky. Either it shows not enough or it shows waaaaay to much of the story and I feel like I don't need to see the movie anymore.)

The description on imdb sounded promising: "The Four Horsemen resurface and are forcibly recruited by a tech genius to pull off their most impossible heist yet." The movie also got a 7,1 at imdb, so I had good hopes! We went to Euroscoop in Maastricht to watch "Now You See Me 2".  I don't want to dive too deep into the plot, because it's quite complicated and it would take me to much text to explain it. Besides, I don't like giving away too much spoilers.  

But in short: We're one year later. The remaining Horsemen are hiding. Illusionist Lula May (Lizzy Caplan) is added to the team. She replaces Henley Reeves in the Horsemen. Ok, I'm intervening here already: That change did not work for me. I didn't like Lula as a new member of the team. Something about her irritated me from te beginning. They way she needs to be the one who makes jokes and 'lighten up' the mood. I didn't like that at all.

Further on the plot: The team is up for a new show. But the show gets interrupted and the Horsemen are captured by a man named Walter Mabry (Daniel Radcliffe). That was another miss for me. I don't think Daniel played a convincing villain. He did not scare me one bit. I haven't watched Harry Potter (I know..), so it wasn't that. I just didn't feel right. For the people who also didn't watch Harry Potter. Daniel Radcliffe plays Harry Potter in these movies. 

Yet again, back to the story: Walter wants the Horsemen to steal a data-mining device for him. The Horsemen take 'the job' and go from there. Question is of course who is playing who? What are the motives? Who is genuine? And is everybody who he seems to be? Lots of factors complicate this: Like Thaddeus Bradley and Dylan Rhodes who have a feud but also need to work together. 

Like I said: I had high hopes. Unfortunately I was very disappointed. Where the first movie kept amazing me, this second one couldn't keep my attention. There were to many reveals where they didn't really need to be. They were trying too hard. And when I was hoping for a big reveal, there wasn't one. At least not one that really amazed me. Some things were really too far fetched in my opinion. It didn't make it a believable story for me. The beginning was quite rushed. And I could feel the 'pressure' perform and amaze. But it was too convulsively. This, combined with some of the actors/ characters I didn't really like made that it wasn't a success for me. 

Of course I enjoyed some parts. I thought Mark Ruffalo and Woody Harrelson did an outstanding job. These guys can act! That was just great to watch. I also like 'the card' scene. Where the Horsemen are being searched and they try to hide a card (With the data-mining device on it). This scene took quite long ( Maybe a bit too long for some viewers). But I enjoyed seeing this. Since the rest of the movie was quite 'fast' with a lack of detail. So this was a very nice variety for me. 

All in all: I'll just stick to the first one. I thought that one was great!