The first Now You See Me was one of the most offensively dumb and nonsensical movies ever made. If you have a limited tolerance for stupidity--especially stupidity that attempts to pss for intelligence--then you probably agree. If not, then you may be one of the millions of people who made the original a box office hit. And why there is now a sequel.

Now You See Me 2 is very much your prototypical sequel; if you liked the original (where "there is nothing magical in this curious but poorly written and directed crime thriller that only makes sense in the filmmakers' heads"), you'll probably like this one.

The positive: now that the filmmakers have shown their cards so that you know what to expect--i.e. silly characters and ridiculously impossible magic tricks heavily reliant on CGI and editing--even those of us who have a limited tolerance for stupidity can potentially find something to enjoy.

Whereas the original tried to play itself off as Ocean’s 11 with magic, Now You See Me 2 better embraces the goofiness of its premise by never trying too hard to make complete sense. The result is a breezy, fun adventure that only sort of pretends it's smart.

Now You See Me 2 still has its overly dumb stuff. Most of the characters are just as one-note and annoying as ever. The dialogue is of inconsistent quality; the movie is sometimes best watched on mute. And the climax is shrugworthy, though an improvement over the preposterous climax of the original.

Now You See Me 2 is an improvement over the original, if only due to lessened expectations.

Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.