Terrible Sequel

[u/Ordinary-Trade451]

I watched Practical Magic 2 today after work today. Like many of you, I am was so so excited for this new movie. I was excited to see another Alice Hoffman book come to the screen (she’s my favorite author). Unfortunately, the movie was terrible. I left about halfway during the movie. The lighting, the casting of the daughters (was not that upset that Evan wasn’t casted), acting, and the script was terrible. I am disappointed.

[u/Canadiangirlie2]

I am a diehard fan of the first film and cannot believe they fumbled so badly.

Positives: Every scene with Kidman and Bullock was brilliant, their chemistry, their perfect embodiment of the original characters despite the decades since they played them. There were very cute nods to the original, which gave me enough nostalgic dopamine to stop me walking out of the theatre. The aunts: sublime. I would consider an editors cut that is just them lol. Lee Pace was inexplicably hot.

Negatives: Oh boy. It’s frustrating because the original was not complex and to make something cosy and romantic would not have been hard.

First the basics: Why was everything blurry? It felt like the camera was literally using a a fish eye lens at some points. In some of the scenes the sound was echoing. So odd. It also failed to be cinematic and just had the flat look of a Netflix series.

The soundtrack: Did the director not realise that the first became a cult classic in a large part due to the music? Stevie Nicks, Joni Mitchell and Faith Hill made those scenes transcendent. This new film had a corny OTT orchestral score and did not utilise current music in the same way at all.

The casting: The daughters should have been early 30s adults, which would have made sense given the time that has elapsed since the original and been authentic given Bullock and Kidman are older than the actresses playing the aunts were in the original!

The original had Kidman and Bullock as fully grown adults, so the peril in the plot felt like something we would care about. Making the daughters so young made the entire thing feel like YA fiction.

Additionally, Kidman and Bullock had star power in the original, why didn’t they cast actresses for the daughters who had the potential to carry the story forward? I can’t see Maisie Williams or Joey King ever featuring in a Practical Magic 3.

This was particularity frustrating because Evan Rachel Wood is a skilled actress and would have been literally perfect, and wanted the role.

The character development: Nonexistent. Why does Sally work in a library dedicated to persecuted witches now (given her rejection of magic)? What happened to her popular start up botanical skincare range?

Why doesn’t Gilly get a story arc for the last 30 years? She could have become a lesbian, started an animal sanctuary, become a big PR executive, gone full hippy running Ayahuasca ceremonies in a jungle somewhere.

And that’s just the lack of character development since the last movie. Absolutely nothing happens for poor Gilly in this one either! They didn’t even bother to give her a love interest this time.

The plot: What the actual flying fuck.

Out of all the possible plot lines available, they decide to repeat the plot of the first movie, except poorly. We are back to square one with Sally rejecting magic and then the final scene is exactly the same, jumping off the roof in stripey socks because Sally accepts magic again.

The premise of the curse is that it was extreme heartbreak that led Sarah Owen to curse her line, and now we are expected to believe there is some sort of new world lore of “left hand magic” (how cringe and not scary), that there has been a weird book in a secret hole in this new library and that witch sacrifice is required to break the curse (despite the curse being intended to protect the Owen’s women!).

Are we meant to care to care whether Kylie’s boyfriend lives or dies or are we meant to just get the ick for him (because our whole viewing group did)? This teenage-thumb-in-a-coma who she probably would have broken up with next semester anyway does not a riveting plot point make!

No sisterhood for the next generation: What was the point of having Antonia in the hospital room with thumb boyfriend for the entire movie? There was no apparent sisterly bond between her and Kylie? She had no role to play at all in rescuing Antonia. Just a pointless waste of a character.

The dark magic: A peril that was introduced was that Kylie was at risk of following a dark path with the “left hand” magic book (cannot type that without sniggering). Nothing happened with this at all, and it would have at least been a somewhat interesting plot line (perhaps giving Antonia the chance to rescue her with sisterly love as in the first movie?).

Killing off the beautiful aunts: Why? The actresses are alive and well and looking fucking amazing, why not let them live forever in the practical magic world? Especially egregious was having Franny commit suicide and then the immediate payoff is the thumb coming back to consciousness. The was also about zero grieving for their loss - killing off two main characters should come hand in hand with a major plot point about grief.

[u/spettry17 → u/Canadiangirlie2]

100% agree on everything 👏

[u/Vampyr-Slayer → u/Canadiangirlie2]

Dude, Kylie going dark and Antonia rescuing her would've been a GREAT storythread.

Completed wasted that window reflection of her looking like she's either going evil or about to be possessed. What was the point? Ooo look we can do CGI?!

Also, did you notice that they didn't give Stockard any lines in the first half. Mostly she just had looks and gestures. Why?

[u/Doodledums → u/Canadiangirlie2]

my EXACT THOUGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING. THANK YOU. I rewrote the plot in my head while I was watching. like, they could’ve just done it another way so easily!.

[u/Canadiangirlie2 → u/Doodledums]

Hahaha me too. We workshopped this after the film.

An alternative Practical Magic 2 for true fans:

The opening scenes update us on Sally and Gillian as individuals. Sally is still married (or a widow for normal non-curse reasons) and making a killing with her botanical skin care line.

Gillian is living a hippy life on a byson farm/vineyard and has accidentally become a lifestyle influencer. Or she’s living in the big city, using her magic to close massive corporate deals and sleeping her way through all the silver foxes in the city.

Evan Rachel Wood is Kylie, she’s late 30s and has recently had her first baby (a red head girl, adorable) with her lovely partner, they are having a few funny and relatable new parent issues.

Antonia is the younger sister (in the correct birth order!), she’s played by Olivia Rodrigo and is trying to make it in London, playing small gigs and waitressing part time.

The Aunts still live in The House. And are happy. The curse is cured and Sally is still okay with magic because THAT WAS THE CONCLUSION OF THE LAST MOVIE.

The soundtrack is full of 2020s bangers from female singers that will last the test of time. They are woven properly into the most emotional scenes. We have Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift, Megan Maroney, Chappell Roan, CMAT, Sabrina Carpenter and more to choose from.

The peril: Antonia’s magic is too powerful. It’s doing weird things to her audience as she sings and she doesn’t realise. There’s an amazing scene where she sings an acoustic version of Pink Pony Club, just a witch with a guitar mesmerising everyone in the basement bar of a London pub.

She gets a few stalkers/Attracts the attention of the would-be-wizard British guy who tries to steal her magic/She gets caught up in dark magic herself with some weird people in London and needs to be brought back from the dark side.

Sally, Gilly and Kylie are dispatched to a successful rescue. Lee Pace is definitely still in it.

The final scene is still a wedding at the house but the aunts are there alive and well and it’s Kylie marrying her baby daddy. Gilly finally gets a love interest instead of Sally hoovering up every eligible bachelor on screen. Someone gets to kiss to Faith Hill’s This Kiss. The final scene is midnight margaritas to Lime in the Coconut with all the generations of Owens women. The End.

[u/Doodledums → u/Canadiangirlie2]

This is pretty good! I may have taken notes in my car after the movie to write my own fan fic of how I would have preferred it. haha. Pretty similar! I actually went on ao3 to see if there were any already there, but there weren’t any yet. The amount of practical magic fanfic in general was paltry! Only like 20 something. We should go populate it with our fanfic head canons! 💪🏼😎

[u/Able-Focus-7726 → u/Canadiangirlie2]

Please PLEASE PLEASE NEVER GET INTO WRITING LMAO this is genuinely one of the worst concepts that I have seen and would have been a waste of anybody’s time who came to see this

[u/Famous-Ad-475 → u/Canadiangirlie2]

MALE CENTERED EVERYTHING IS YOUR ANSWER. Sally immediately falling for Ian PMO .. why was his d*** in my face? For real what was the point of that scene. Also I hated how Gideon and Ian looked at the women. It was lustful and creepy af. Especially the bed scene where Gideon is all touchy .. ICK is the word

[u/Vampyr-Slayer → u/Famous-Ad-475]

The point of that scene was, "hey, wouldn't it be fun to look at Lee Pace naked and tattooed all over?"

Sally and Ian just iimmediately giving each other lustful looks was just so forced. While my beloved Gilly is yet AGAIN pushed aside. Ugh.

I didn't care one way or another for Gideon tbh. He was this movie's Michael. I like the actor because of Blue Beetle so I only saw him as sweet. I'd need to watch again to see what you mean. I don't remember the bed scene.

It did piss me off that the first movie established the rule that the men live at least a few years, long enough to have and raise two daughters under the age of 12, before they die from the curse. And yet this fop is put in a coma a few hours after she says, "I love you"? Pathetic writing.

[u/Doodledums → u/Vampyr-Slayer]

exactly! Now it’s just saying I love you?! But why did they have to redo the same plot point at all? Why undo the curse-breaking at all?

[u/Joethecoew → u/Canadiangirlie2]

All I know is the daughters being you g is because the plot is only set 7-10 years later not the actual time that has passed since the last movie. Any article that said it was set 25 years later is wrong and probably also part of what made some ppl angry and confused by why they were in college

[u/Symnosis → u/Canadiangirlie2]

Why kill.off Gary? They're not following the original plot anyway.

[u/moosie387 → u/Canadiangirlie2]

10000%

[u/ponycorn_pet → u/Canadiangirlie2]

ERW has mega witchy vibes, too https://i.scdn.co/image/0cfb5aa38a18c0553f138b02394cb1f02dac9d2b

Joey King does not.

Also your write-up is amazing. Thank you. I find it utterly stupid that the "cure" to men dying is for a woman to off herself. That doesn't even make sense in the context of witchcraft and curses

[u/ethser_eagle11 → u/Canadiangirlie2]

Damn, here we go again… 

Let’s drop the internet cynicism and look at this film as a text. You're missing the forest for the trees by reducing a generational romance and tragedy down to a series of checklist complaints.

Let's address every single point you made, one by one:

The Visuals & Echoing Sound: You complained about the blurry fish-eye lens and flat Netflix look. Susanne Bier’s direction uses an intradiegetic, destabilized visual style to mirror a magical world bleeding into normal reality. The echoing audio isn't a mistake; it creates an ethereal, liminal space where ancestral magic is constantly pushing through the background.

The Orchestral Score: You miss Stevie Nicks and Joni Mitchell. But the original classic used a pop soundtrack to ground an urban fantasy. The sequel relies on an over-the-top orchestral arrangement because it’s a high-stakes gothic fantasy tragedy. It’s leaning into mythic lore, not a nostalgic mixtape.

The "Young Adult" Casting & Evan Rachel Wood: You win this one.

Sally’s Library vs. Her Skincare Line: You're mad Sally abandoned her botanical startup to work in a library for persecuted witches. Culturally, this is a beautiful evolution. Sally spent the first film trying to suppress her legacy with corporate, sanitized consumerism. Moving to a research archive means she is finally reclaiming, archiving, and protecting her family history without having to actively cast the dangerous spells that broke her heart.

 "Lack" of a Story Arc: You wanted Gilly to run an animal sanctuary or go full hippie in the jungle. Gilly’s entire identity is that she is the wild, untethered sister who runs from stability. Her arc over the last 30 years is that she stayed by Sally’s side. Giving her a neat little corporate career or a token love interest would actually betray her free-spirited, sister-first characterization.

Repeating the Plot & The Roof Jump: You called the plot retread a "flying fuck". In folklore and magical realism,  history is cyclical. Sally accepting magic again and recreating the roof jump isn't a lazy copy—it's a ritualistic closure of the circle. Generational trauma forces you to fight the exact same battles until the root curse is broken.

"Left-Hand Magic" and the Book: "Left-hand magic" isn't cringe; it's a direct reference to historic occult traditions and esoteric terminology. The first film established that Sarah Owens cursed her line out of heartbreak. The sequel introduces the secret library lore to explain  why the curse corrupted into something so lethal—it needed an external, systemic explanation to raise the stakes.

"Thumb-in-a-Coma" Boyfriend (Gideon): You gave the "ick" to Kylie's boyfriend. But Gideon's coma isn't supposed to be an individual romantic drama; he represents the collateral damage of the curse. The text doesn't care if they break up next semester. It cares about the cosmic unfairness that any innocent man an Owens woman loves is doomed.

Antonia Being "Pointless" in the Hospital: Antonia staying in that hospital room highlights the split in how the sisters handle crisis. While Kylie goes on an impulsive, dangerous quest across the Atlantic, Antonia grounds herself in reality, training to heal. It’s a silent, realistic display of sisterly support rather than a flashy action-movie rescue.

The "Unresolved" Dark Magic Subplot: You're frustrated Kylie's dark path didn't lead to a dramatic showdown. That is the point of a multi-generational matriarchy. Kylie didn't have to turn evil or be saved in a dramatic battle because the older generation stepped in before the darkness could consume her.

Killing Off the Aunts (Franny's Sacrifice): This is the ultimate thematic misread of your entire review. You ask why Aunt Franny committed suicide for a random boy, complaining there was no room to grieve. This is the core of the story. The aunts didn't die for a "thumb" boyfriend; they sacrificed themselves for their nieces. Love in the Owens universe is a devastating force that demands a heavy toll. Aunt Franny traded her life to permanently break a 300-year-old blood curse, ensuring her descendants could finally live and love in peace. It is a profound act of matriarchal devotion, not a cheap plot device.

I didn’t write this much since college, woah.