A hypnotic film, Now You See Me 2

Recently, I watched "Now You See Me 2," a movie whose topic is magicians' act on the airplane.

This work is a sequel of "Now You See Me." Unfortunately, I have not seen the previous film. But I completely enjoyed this movie.

In this film, a unit of professional magicians, called "Four Horsemen" is forced to conduct a steal for a coercer. He is a genius engineer and has vanished his personal history from the world. But he notices a company developed an IC device which enables the user to intrude any computer network. He feels unsafe as this device can reveal his past crimes. Therefore, he captures Four Horsemen to get the device for him.

Four Horsemen unwillingly steal the device but hesitate to give it to the coercer. On the other hand, he intends to kill all of the Horsemen for securing himself. Then, Horsemen do a great trick.

In this film, several kinds of magic are shown. At the opening, you can see a word "believe" made of wooden plates. But as the camera moves, you notice it is a component of the word "lie," and other letters drew on the ground. So, it is a trick art. A cool direction!

There are other illusions you can enjoy this film. Some of them look hardly to be realized. According to the official announcement, all of them can be presented on stage, without CG or scene arrangement.

However, I hardly agree with this explanation. In this film, several hypnoses are presented. For example, a Horseman commands a man, "forget!" Immediately after that, the man who was asked forgets the fact he was hypnotized. It is obviously impossible!

I have learned hypnosis a little. Hypnosis is not a fantasy. But, nobody can hypnotize a person so easily as seen in this film.

Furthermore, Horsemen make more complicated commands to the receiver of hypnosis, such as "throw me away from the window." It is ridiculous to manipulate a person with a few words and gesture.

These scenes get rid of reality from the story. To begin with, if a person can use such a powerful hypnosis, he will do anything he wants to do. The condition in which hypnosis is successfully working was not clarified in this film.

In conclusion, I do not think this film is excellent. Other elements are very good, but I cannot accept omnipotent hypnosis. It is very sorry that featuring hypnosis has totally ruined the story.

Personal Rating: 2 (poor)