Now You See Me 2 Parent Guide

You might feel a little lost if you haven’t seen the 2013 movie Now You See Me. This sequel provides about 60 seconds of back-story, but that might not be enough to grasp the motivation in this sleight-of-hand film.

The Four Horsemen are a group of street magicians, each with his or her own specialty. Brought together by an unseen figure known only as the Eye, these performers pulled off the heist of a lifetime while being hounded by FBI agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo). (He proves to be more friend than foe by the end of the first film.)

Following the Las Vegas spectacle where the group showered onlookers with money they stole from a French bank, the performers had to go underground for more than a year. However extroverts need an audience and Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merritt (Woody Harrelson) and Jack (Dave Franco) are anxious to get back in the spotlight. This time they are working with a new illusionist, Lula (Lizzy Caplan).

The Horsemen are used to pulling a fast one on others, but now they find themselves at the mercy of Walter Mabry (Daniel Radcliffe). The self-assured, tech guru faked his death and now anonymously manipulates markets, business ventures and the personal privacy of others. Walter is after a chip that will allow him to hack any computer in the world. And he wants the Horsemen to retrieve it for him from a highly secure location.

That mandate gives these conjurors full permission to pull off a fast-paced series of slick tricks that would be far more impressive in real life than they are on screen. (Sadly the constant use of CGI has taken away some of the “wow” factor a live street performer would inspire.) The plotline also goes on hiatus as the magicians make people disappear, create rainstorms and behead a pigeon. And unfortunately their magic skills don’t do them any good during the film’s fight scenes where characters are punched, kicked, shot at, thrown out of a plane, drowned and presumably decapitated.

In the end, this storyline is all about controlling perception and these magicians do that well with their over-the-top entertainment. For audiences interested in a little more depth than deceit, this film also tallies up the cost of revenge. More than one character is lured into a blind spot by allowing his desire to get even or for power to cloud his vision. While that isn’t always an easy message to separate from the glitzy depictions of Three Card Monte, hypnosis or card throwing, it does keep this film from completely collapsing like a house of cards.

About author

Kerry Bennett

Kerry Bennett is interested in media from both a journalist and parent perspective. Along with authoring articles for several family-oriented publications, she has written for Parent Previews for over 15 years. As a parent herself, she believes parents play a powerful role in teaching media literacy in their homes.