Ink of Blood

(This review may contain spoilers).

Despite feeling like the prequel to this didn’t quite live up to its potential, I enjoyed this second movie a lot.

I thought it was good to see how the Horsemen were affected by having to be in hiding, especially when it came to Atlas. I thought the first scenes at the beginning did a really good job of establishing tension and engaging me from the start.

There were a lot of really cool magic tricks used and although some of them were obvious about how they were performed, quite a lot of them were really cleverly one.

I really liked the fact there were conflicts in the group, particularly between Dylan and Atlas. It was also really good to see what each of their groups were doing alongside each other.

I liked that each member of the horsemen had their own skills and abilities, though it was cool to see Jack and Merritt trying to teach each other their skills. I thought the way the hypnotism worked was really cool… though I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t much in the way of Merritt using the card tricks later.

I did think it was interesting to see the tension in the relationship between Merritt and Chase and it was good to learn a bit more about Merritt’s past. I was disappointed not to get an explanation for Henley’s disappearance (at least in character), but I did think that Lula did a good job of taking her place. Even though I didn’t get the chance to know her as well as the others, I still liked her. But I did think the whole ‘hat out of a rabbit’ was brought up a few too many times.

There were some really good elements of tension and also some really moments of humour. I did feel the scene with the card throwing did seem to take a little too long… and was unnecessary, given what was revealed later… but it was cleverly done.

I thought there were some really good periods of foreshadowing and I was able to see some of the events coming. It was good to see Dylan forced to work with Thaddeus, even though I didn’t especially like the latter.

I thought there were a lot of really good effects and the film kept my attention throughout. While some of the things that happened were a bit difficult to believe after the fact, the movie was still entertaining and the characters were easy to like. This is probably a film I’d be interested in watching again.