The shell of a man uncentered. Thrashing waves of vengeance across a thirty year gap. His students duped into location removal. One minute the states, the next Macau. What villainous mask wears this magical conceit?

Trial by hypnosis, the token brothers give, much as a pocket ends up picked or a rhino appears from mist; magic revealed sinks into heartiest deep. Try to imagine a better fool, the spell-woven kind with a preference for the mind. I, Richard Jack Smith, salute these redemptive souls whose quest might alter the cautious man.

With stinger interest, megaphone holder Jon M. Chu dances behind the camera. His previous partners in crime Step Up 2: The Streets and Step Up 3D prepared him for a waltz or two. If rhythm goes unvarnished, not even Gielgud would save it. Hence some tears and fears remove a warning sentry. Time to break open that ’69 case, party on down the mall and prepare to wipe your clean slate via fresher toxin.

The most obvious and delectable choice might be Lizzy Caplan’s Lula. She fumbles, fakes a good joke and pretends to be plain. A double act for Woody Harrelson, sleeping under a drive to fix sibling mismanagement; he’s a carthorse and speed racer at this editor’s bidding. Free to run in circles, Jesse Eisenberg reprises the same note sans violin. Perhaps the cello would hide his lowly pitch, stretched to capacity above a broken, sinking man o’ war.

Test tube dailies squelched into pleasing shape, while passing through the hoops of intestinal mastery. See Mark Ruffalo’s boyhood expression over magical seesaw… disappearing in view of the most anxious spotlight.

The tedium in a restless back, slavish honesty and a lie too good to be considered otherwise; all these things don’t apply to Now You See Me 2. Like a trick show, the magician proves just as fortuitous as the elephant in front of him.

On that note, here’s a poem:

The trick might be over there

as special effects appear.

Stage stepping a matter of course

for ready minds and the new horse.

Thinking up new ways to please

Now You See Me 2 discards the cheese.

Tired of cons or a fly-on-the-wall?

Dispassionate thinking undone by chain and ball.

Something in this grand total

might match the original.

Again the act could surprise

if open minds reprise.

(Released by Summit Entertainment and rated "PG-13" for violence and some language.)