2.5 stars. Rated PG-13, for profanity and brief violence
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 6.10.16
A good magician knows when to get
off the stage, and how to leave an audience wanting more.
This film fails on both counts.
 |
| After being transported halfway around the world in a manner they can't comprehend, the Four Horsemen — from left, Jack (Dave Franco), Lula (Lizzy Caplan), Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg) and Merritt (Woody Harrelson) — are about to confront their captor. |
That said, director Jon M. Chu is
quite accomplished at another technique favored by magicians: repeatedly
distracting us with inconsequential glitz, noise and plenty of flash, as a
means of concealing the true ruse ... the fact that Ed Solomon’s confused, cluttered
and ultimately contradictory screenplay doesn’t make a lick of sense.
Like so many other overblown,
empty-calorie sequels, this one’s all sound and fury, signifying absolutely
nothing. When we finally see what’s behind the curtain — and a bewildering,
exposition-heavy epilog provides just such a scene — the letdown is palpable.
Sure, it’s fun to watch — sort of
— but the joy is fleeting (although, at 129 minutes, not fleeting enough). But
goodness; must frothy popcorn entertainment be so brain-dead?
Character development wasn’t a
strong (card) suit in 2013’s Now You See
Me, but at least some effort was
made. Solomon wrote the script for that one as well, but he worked from a story
by Boaz Yakin and Edward Ricourt. This time, Solomon also co-wrote the story,
with Pete Chiarelli; both apparently decided that granting their stars anything
approaching actual human behavior would have been superfluous.
Thus, the personalities of this
sequel’s so-called “Four Horsemen” can be boiled down to single words: J.
Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg) is arrogant; Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson)
is smug; Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) is bashful; and Lula (Lizzy Caplan) is
reckless.
Attentive viewers may realize
that Lula is a newcomer, replacing the first film’s Henley Reeves, played by
Isla Fisher. No doubt the latter took one look at this new script, said words
to the effect of “Are you kidding?”
and bolted. More power to her.
