Director: Jon M. Chu
Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Daniel Radcliffe, Lizzy Caplan, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine
Synopsis: The elusive group of magicians who call themselves ‘The Four Horsemen’ are pulled out of hiding to protect themselves from their newest threat. Forced to work for a new technology genius, they must pull off their biggest heist yet.
The Good: Mark Ruffalo. He has to be one of my favourite actors at the moment, and did well to add some emotional investment into his smaller storyline. His ‘fight scene’ in the market place was one of the few instances were the film’s magical aspect worked well. Lizzy Caplan wasn’t a bad replacement for Isla Fisher, but I reckon Fisher did well to jump off this sinking ship of a sequel.
The Bad: The ‘magical’ element of the film was completely lost in too much CGI. I’m not saying that all the tricks in the original film were 100% real, but they felt like they had a sense of plausibility within the ‘real world’ setting. Here, the tricks were trying too hard to have a new wow-factor and relied heavily on special effects. The magic went beyond any form of believable and just became ridiculous and detached from the rest of the film. I would have preferred to see actual magicians doing actual tricks rather than a bunch of actors flicking their arms and having CGI playing cards appear.
The Ugly: The general feeling surrounding of the entire story was just that it was lost in trying to play too many tricks. It is difficult to watch scene after scene knowing that what we are seeing is some illusion, and it will later be altered and re-explained. The story became lost within itself as too many attempts at tricks or revelations marred any chance at getting on board with the film. The dialogue was way too long and convoluted to the point where I was clock watching at the end. Oh and I have no idea why Woody Harrelson had to have his own ‘twin’ in this, which cheapened the film to an even lower low.
Rating: 2/5
I was pleasantly entertained by the first one (It had its problems), but it was never worthy of a sequel. Hollywood needs to stop needlessly trying to milk money out of anything popular. Bring originality back into the frame (pun intended)!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha agreed! I’d much rather a completely new film rather than a drawn out sequel!
LikeLiked by 1 person
44 films this year are sequels, reboots or remakes. That’s just sad, to be honest. I mean, some are actually great and/or exist for a purpose (Deadpool; Captain America: Civil War; Finding Dory), but most (like this; Alice Through the Looking Glass; Ride Along 2) really waste a movie lover’s time.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I had no idea the number was that high! It’s true, some sequels deserve to be made, just a shame that so many bad ones get released.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well, all that the art of film seems to be about today is money.
But then again a little glimmer of hope comes around like Sing Street :’) Have you watched that? I think it’s my best of the year (so far).
LikeLike
I haven’t seen that, will have to watch and review soon!
LikeLike
You definitely should. I fell in love with it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s an Irish independent film, so naturally I take patriotic pride in it haha.
LikeLiked by 1 person